PATENTS and 7th Amdt Rights

Mark Lemley questioning 7th Amdt right to jury trial:

"There is, surprisingly, no precedential decision resolving the Seventh Amendment question. And English practice before 1791 -- the basis for Seventh Amendment jurisprudence -- is ambiguous at best on whether juries must decide patent validity. I argue that if and when the issue is presented to the Supreme Court, the Court is unlikely to find a constitutional right to jury trial on issues of patent validity, and certainly not the broad right of the sort that is now common practice. Removing the jury from most patent validity determinations would change patent litigation in important ways."