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Welcome to Federal Circuitry

Federal Circuitry is a data-driven Federal Circuit blog. Our Federal Circuit Statistics empirically analyze quantifiable aspects of the Court. Our En Banc Tracker highlights pending and past petitions. Our Substantive Order Tracker allows you to search less-discussed orders. Check back weekly for Last Week in the Federal Circuit and monthly for our Oral Argument Recap. Follow us on Twitter @Fed_Circuitry.

May 17, 2021 - Last Week in the Federal Circuit
Last Week in the Federal Circuit (May 10-14): The Arthrex and No-Appeal-Bar Gifts Keep on Giving
The Federal Circuit had a busy week, issuing 18 opinions—8 of them precedential. One of those cases put a new spin on two PTAB-related issues we’ve covered extensively on this blog: Arthrex (which held PTAB judges were unconstitutionally appointed) and the AIA’s no-appeal bar.
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May 13, 2021 - Federal Circuit Insights
How Well Do You Know the Federal Circuit’s Jurisdiction?
By: Seth W. Lloyd
“The Federal Circuit – that’s the patent court, right?” That seems to be a common sentiment from non-Federal Circuit practitioners. And there’s certainly some truth to the sentiment. According to the Court’s own statistics , from October 1, 2019, to September 30, 2020, the
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May 11, 2021 - Last Week in the Federal Circuit
Last Week in the Federal Circuit (May 3-7): The case of the missing beds and affirmative misrepresentations
By: Brian R. Matsui
Last week was Court week, so it was busy in the Federal Circuit with telephonic oral arguments. Despite all the activity, the Court still issued a dozen opinions, including two precedential ones. For our case of the week, we decided to focus in on
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May 03, 2021 - Federal Circuit Insights
The Latest on Federal Circuit Cases before the Supreme Court
The Supreme Court Term is winding down, with just one oral argument remaining and about two months before the last opinion release. Today, we’re checking in on the main Federal Circuit cases on the Court’s docket—including one breaking-news update. American Axle and Section 101
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May 03, 2021 - Last Week in the Federal Circuit
Last Week in the Federal Circuit (April 26-30): The Potentially Limited Life Of IP Assignment Provisions In Employment Contracts
By: Seth W. Lloyd
Today’s big news in the patent world is probably the CVSG in American Axle and the potential for a new Supreme Court case on subject-matter eligibility. But the day-to-day work goes on at the Federal Circuit, including with an interesting decision on the scope
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April 26, 2021 - Last Week in the Federal Circuit
Last Week in the Federal Circuit (April 19-23): Contingent Findings v. Alternative Holdings
As many of you probably saw, Chief Judge Prost’s tenure as Chief Judge of the Federal Circuit is coming to a close, with Judge Moore set to become the new Chief Judge on May 22. But the upcoming transition doesn’t seem to have slowed
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April 22, 2021 - Federal Circuit Insights
Revisiting Cancelled Oral Arguments
By: Brian R. Matsui
It has been a little while since we took a look at what—from a statistics standpoint—went down at recent oral arguments (see last post here ). Since the Federal Circuit went remote, there was an initial wave of a high percentage of appeals that
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April 19, 2021 - Last Week in the Federal Circuit
Last Week in the Federal Circuit (April 12-16): Self-Enabling Prior Art
By: Stephen Liu
It was a busy week for the Federal Circuit, with a total of 18 new opinions, including a precedential opinion on enablement in the context of § 103 obviousness references. Below we provide our usual weekly statistics and our case of the week—our highly
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April 13, 2021 - Last Week in the Federal Circuit
Last Week in the Federal Circuit (April 5-9): Failure to Authenticate Third-Party Source Code
Last week was argument week, which sometimes means lots of Rule 36 affirmances and not a lot of precedential opinions. Still, that didn’t stop the Court from issuing an interesting, and relatively rare, precedential decision on evidence admissibility. Below we provide our usual weekly
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April 08, 2021 - Federal Circuit Insights
Will Your Appeal Have Argument Soon?
By: Brian R. Matsui
There’s a perception in the Federal Circuit bar that that Court has been scheduling cases for oral argument a bit quicker recently. Now, on some levels, it’s all relative—the Federal Circuit has always been pretty quick in getting cases to argument. But there definitely
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