The Supreme Court recently issued its first decision of the Term in Arellano v. McDonough, affirming the Federal Circuit and holding that a statutory provision governing the effective date of a veterans’ benefits application...more
Now that we’re just over two weeks out from arguments in the Federal Circuit’s September sitting, it’s time for our monthly oral argument recap. After taking Thursday and Friday off during its August session, the Court was...more
While we’ll all remember last week because of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s passing, things were relatively quiet at the Federal Circuit. The Court issued just two written decisions in regular cases, two on mandamus...more
Maybe it was the end of summer and the start of fall, or the kids (kind of) going back to school. But whatever it was, last week the Court issued only one precedential decision, in a veteran’s benefits case. All said, the...more
9/17/2020
/ Administrative Patent Judges ,
Appeals ,
Appellate Courts ,
Appointments Clause ,
Arthrex Inc v Smith & Nephew Inc ,
Constitutional Challenges ,
Director of the USPTO ,
Follow-On Patent Petitions ,
Inter Partes Review (IPR) Proceeding ,
Patent Trial and Appeal Board ,
Reaffirmation ,
Remand ,
SCOTUS ,
Severability Doctrine ,
Vacated
Last week was September Court week, marking the unofficial end of summer for Federal Circuit practitioners. The Court issued a total of 25 decisions, including 8 Rule 36 summary affirmances in cases argued last week, as well...more
9/9/2020
/ § 314(d) ,
§ 315(b) ,
§314(a) ,
§314(b) ,
America Invents Act ,
Appeals ,
Blackberry ,
Dissenting Opinions ,
Facebook ,
Google ,
Inter Partes Review (IPR) Proceeding ,
Joinder ,
Judicial Review ,
Non-Appealable Decisions ,
Patent Infringement ,
Patent Litigation ,
Patent Trial and Appeal Board ,
Patents ,
SCOTUS ,
Thryv Inc v Click-To-Call Technologies LP ,
Time-Barred Claims ,
Vacated
Last week the summer was winding down and the Federal Circuit was gearing up for its September argument session. But the Court still found time to hand down a number of decisions—17 in total. Below we provide our usual weekly...more
9/1/2020
/ Appeals ,
Appellate Courts ,
Claim Construction ,
Concurrent Litigation ,
Inter Partes Review (IPR) Proceeding ,
Inventors ,
Judicial Estoppel ,
Means-Plus-Function ,
Partial Reversal ,
Patent Infringement ,
Patent Litigation ,
Patent Trial and Appeal Board ,
Patents ,
Pre-AIA Patents ,
Rebuttable Presumptions
Next week is Court week. Readers may remember that, after the Court released the September calendar, we predicted that the submission trend would continue. Were we right? Sort of....more
8/29/2020
/ Appeals ,
Appellate Courts ,
Appellate Practice Guidance ,
Court Closures ,
Court Schedules ,
Dissenting Opinions ,
Oral Argument ,
Patent Trial and Appeal Board ,
Patent Validity ,
Patents ,
Reaffirmation ,
Remand ,
Vacated
We are two weeks out from arguments in the Federal Circuit’s August sitting, so it is time for our monthly oral argument recap. As it has done for the past several years, the Court heard arguments on only three days in...more
This week, this Ninth Circuit once again issued a number of opinions arising from the employment relationship. Here, we focus on two of particular interest. In the first, the Court sought to unravel whether an emergency room...more
8/21/2020
/ Administrative Proceedings ,
Appeals ,
Appellate Courts ,
Attorney's Fees ,
Breach of Duty ,
Denial of Benefits ,
Dismissals ,
Duty of Loyalty ,
Duty of Prudence ,
Emergency Rooms ,
Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) ,
Equitable Relief ,
Fiduciary Duty ,
Independent Contractors ,
IRA Rollovers ,
Long Term Disability Insurance ,
Mandatory Requirements ,
Motion to Dismiss ,
Pensions ,
Physicians ,
Reaffirmation ,
Title VII
As we mentioned in one of our previous posts, the Federal Circuit recently denied a long-pending petition for rehearing en banc in American Axle & Manufacturing v. Neapco Holdings, a Section 101 case. More than 8 months...more
It was a moderately eventful week at the Federal Circuit as the judges geared up for their August argument session and perhaps returned from their summer vacations. The Court issued 13 opinions and 2 orders on petitions for a...more
8/6/2020
/ Administrative Procedure Act ,
Appeals ,
Burden of Proof ,
Inter Partes Review (IPR) Proceeding ,
Patent Invalidity ,
Patent Litigation ,
Patent Trial and Appeal Board ,
Patents ,
Pharmaceutical Industry ,
Pharmaceutical Patents ,
Standard of Review