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 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
Last week was Court week, and some of the Rule 36s in argued cases have already come down. Below we give our usual week’s statistics and case of the week—our highly subjective selection based on whatever case piqued our...more
Brian Matsui, Seth Lloyd, and Samuel Goldstein authored an article for Law360 covering how the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has streamlined its docket and moved oral arguments from the courtroom to conference...more
As courts across the country grapple with the COVID-19 pandemic, the Federal Circuit has streamlined its docket and moved oral arguments from the courtroom to conference calling. Early indications suggest that is changing how...more