21.   Some business interests say juries find it difficult to understand the legal and technical complexities of patent cases and tend to sympathize with inventors in fights against wealthy corporations.

22.   Some legal experts have called for the appointment of specially trained judges to hear complex patent cases as a way to ensure more predictability and evenhandedness.

23.   That Washington-based court, which hears appeals of all patent cases across the country, ruled that the inventor never had the right to patent the membrane.

24.   The decision has broader ramifications for the outcome of appeals in patent cases, too.

25.   The high court justices have already agreed to consider another case involving jury trials in patent cases.

26.   The ruling comes as the number of patent cases tried before juries has risen sharply.

27.   The ruling was a surprise because such injunctions are rare in patent cases.

28.   The threat of blockbuster verdicts is a big reason many companies settle patent cases before trial, some attorneys say.

29.   The Supreme Court, which rarely takes on patent cases, may review the Markman decision because it touches on the constitutional right to a jury trial.

30.   They also said district judges have a good deal of discretion in determining damage levels in patent cases.