NEW YORK, Oct 14 (Reuters) - Nine federal judges in New York will participate in a pilot program overseeing patent cases, part of a nationwide experiment to address a growing and complicated set of such cases piling up in federal court dockets.

Under the program, a patent case will be heard by one of the program's judges if the original judge assigned to the case declines it. Typically judges do not have the opportunity to decline a case.

Congress mandated that the judiciary conduct a 10-year pilot program to study whether certain judges should develop expertise in handling patent cases, which can be lengthy and filled with both technical and technological complexities.

"These can be difficult cases to deal with, and of a particular technical nature," said U.S. District Judge Thomas Griesa of the federal court in Manhattan, which provided nine of the judges participating in the pilot. "Not that I am trying patent cases every week, but when they come, a complicated patent case is a very major undertaking."

The judges are likely to share ideas about how to handle certain aspects of patent cases, such as evidentiary hearings, said Griesa, with the ultimate goal of training other judges in the area.

"My idea is to see if we can enhance our expertise, and then impart the benefits of that to our entire court -- and not have a specialized court," Griesa said.

Beside the New York federal court, thirteen other districts are participating in the pilot program.

Nationwide, patent filings increased 18 percent from 2009 to 2010, according to federal court statistics.

The New York district court judges all volunteered to participate in the pilot. Beside Griesa they are Kevin Castel, Denise Cote, John Koeltl, Colleen McMahon, Jed Rakoff, Shira Scheindlin, Laura Taylor Swain, and Robert Sweet.

(Reporting by Carlyn Kolker)

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