Schedule A Patent Litigation Trends in the Southern District of Florida

Patent case filings in the Southern District of Florida spiked in 2025, with an increase in case filings of more than 58 percent year-over-year. Much of that gain was attributable to design patent cases, especially those filed against “Schedule A” defendants. 

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office issues design patents to protect “new, original and ornamental design for an article of manufacture.” 35 U.S.C. § 171. Unlike utility patents, design patents are limited to non-functional, decorative features. See Ethicon Endo-Surgery, Inc. v. Covidien, Inc., 796 F.3d 1312, 1327 (Fed. Cir. 2015).  

In “Schedule A” patent litigation, a plaintiff (or group of plaintiffs) files a single federal lawsuit against many alleged infringers, identified in an attachment to the complaint referred to as “Schedule A”. Typically, the listed defendants are online sellers based in foreign countries who are cumbersome to serve with process by traditional methods. Certain U.S. district courts have regularly allowed design patent plaintiffs to invoke service of process against “Schedule A” defendants identified only by their online marketplace account names by means of electronic messaging. Frequently, the case resolves by default judgment against the defendants, which can include large damage awards, permanent injunctions, and deactivation of defendants’ online marketplace and social media accounts. 

In the Southern District of Florida, design patent case filings have grown exponentially in recent years. Although only six such cases were filed in 2009, plaintiffs filed forty-one design patent lawsuits in South Florida in 2025, an increase of nearly sevenfold. In fact, more than one-third of patent cases filed in the Southern District of Florida in 2025 were design patent lawsuits against online merchants, and more than 70 percent of those cases were against “Schedule A” defendants. 

Strategically, brand owners are increasingly pursuing a multifaceted approach to intellectual property enforcement, integrating claims for design patents, utility patents, trademarks, copyrights, and trade secrets to establish a comprehensive protective framework for their products. As social and economic conditions change rapidly, practitioners must adapt their approaches to capitalize on these trends while effectively serving their clients in an increasingly high-stakes environment.  

For each commercially relevant lawsuit that matters to them, companies and law firms with Lex Machina®, the LexisNexis® Legal Analytics® platform, easily discover who won, how much was awarded, by what procedural means, under what findings, how long it took, and more – plus nuanced experience metrics for the involved courts, judges, law firms, attorneys, and parties. Now more than ever, powerful analytics and exclusive insights from our platform enable legal professionals to complete common workflows with confidence and precision. 

For further insights into recent patent litigation trends and their implications for companies and their counsel, practitioners are warmly invited to request the latest Lex Machina Patent Litigation Report. 

Learn more about Lex Machina and how our platform enables data-driven decisions for civil litigation.