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New Patent Reform Proposal Focuses on Education
CNet is reporting that a new proposal before Congress is attempting to increase the number of federal judges who specialize in patent litigation. From the article: "The proposal prescribes $5 million each year in federal funding over the next decade for "educational and professional development" programs for designated judges and to pay the salaries of new, specially appointed clerks with patent expertise. Under the bill, patent cases would continue to be randomly assigned to judges, but with a notable exception. Any judge who practices within a court district offering the pilot program but who chooses not to sign up for the extra training would have the option of transferring patent cases to a program participant." Techdirt also has a short writeup on why this specialization might not necessarily be a good thing.
It's federally-funded, but it'll likely be industry that does the education. I see lots of ways some careful "teaching" could skew the courts.
In the UK the Judges are patent specialists. They are pretty smart too considering the wide range of subject matter they are able to assimilate. I recall reading that prior to one complex case on biotechnology a prof from one of the Oxbridge colleges came in to give the judges a crash course which they just lapped up.