Good news for IP litigation experts: business is booming at the top IP law firms, according to the 2011 Patent Litigation Survey by Corporate Counsel (CC). For example, the annual survey, which ranks law firms according to how many federal district court patent cases they handled during the most recent year, reveals that industry leader Fish & Richardson (which took top honors for the eighth year in a row) handled 128 cases in 2010, compared to 99 last year—a 29% increase. Similarly, the number-two ranked firm saw its caseload shoot up almost 47%. Defense against “patent trolls” continues to fuel the boom, along with cases concerning industry “giants” such as Apple, Oracle, and Microsoft. “So the business of patent litigation appears to be strong,” says the CC surveyors, “to the relief if IP lawyers [and their experts] and the dismay of litigation-fatigued general counsel.”