The U.S. Supreme Court’s Increasing Involvement In Patent Law

Knobbe Martens
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In 1982, the U.S. congress formed a new specialised appeals court, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, or “CAFC,” and transferred responsibility for patent appeals from the various regional courts of appeal to this new court. One goal of establishing the CAFC was to bring uniformity and predictability to U.S. patent law, since consolidating responsibility for patent law at the CAFC would create a single line of binding precedents in patent cases. The Supreme Court still had discretion to hear appeals from the CAFC and modify its precedents, as required by the U.S. Constitution; however, for decades, the Supreme Court rarely exercised this discretion, allowing the new court to effectively have the final say on patent law. But in the last 10 years, all of this has changed dramatically. The Supreme Court has increased by more than 300% its review of patent cases over the last decade, as a percentage of its total number of decided cases, in comparison with each of the preceding three decades.

Moreover, patent law appears to be an unusual realm of broad agreement between justices of the U.S. Supreme Court, and recent cases show a perception by the justices that the lower courts, including the CAFC, had taken some wrong turns in their interpretations and applications of U.S. patent law. These two factors—agreement between Supreme Court justices, but disagreement with lower courts—taken together, can help explain the recent strong interest in patent cases at the Supreme Court.

Originally published on Corporate Livewire on December 26, 2014.

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DISCLAIMER: Because of the generality of this update, the information provided herein may not be applicable in all situations and should not be acted upon without specific legal advice based on particular situations.

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