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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 and check out our sister blog, Left Coast Appeals, to keep tabs on the Ninth Circuit.

April 05, 2021 - Last Week in the Federal Circuit
Last Week in the Federal Circuit (March 29-April 2): A POSA By Any Other Name …
In a slow week, the Federal Circuit nevertheless gave patent litigators everywhere a non-precedential opinion to nibble on about the definition of the ever-present person having ordinary skill in the art. Below we provide our usual weekly statistics and our case of the week—our
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March 31, 2021 - Federal Circuit Insights
Rehearing revisited: Do some judges CFR more often than others?
By: Brian R. Matsui and Seth W. Lloyd
In a recent post, we took a look at data on rehearing petitions—specifically, the timing of calls for responses (CFRs). Today, we dig further into that data to see if we can identify judges whose panels CFR more often. As you may remember, for
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March 29, 2021 - Last Week in the Federal Circuit
Last Week in the Federal Circuit (March 22-26): Improving A Technological Process Or Merely Enhancing An Ineligible Concept
By: Seth W. Lloyd
Spring seems to have arrived in DC, and cherry blossom trees are starting to bloom all over the region. But the beautiful weather this weekend didn’t stop us from our weekly review of all things Federal Circuit. Below we provide our usual weekly statistics
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March 25, 2021 - Federal Circuit Insights
When Do Federal Circuit Judges Sit?
By: Seth W. Lloyd
A couple weeks ago we wrote about how often Federal Circuit judges sit in a given year ( see How Often Do Federal Circuit Judges Sit? ). Spoiler: they sit a lot. In that post, though, we looked at the data for each judge
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March 22, 2021 - Last Week in the Federal Circuit
Last Week in the Federal Circuit (March 15-19): Compensation Conflict
The Federal Circuit followed last week’s busy week with a slower one, issuing ten total decisions. In one of its two precedential opinions, the Court took on a circuit split over overtime compensation. Below we provide our usual weekly statistics and our case of
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March 16, 2021 - Federal Circuit Insights
50-50 Federal Circuit?
By: Deanne E. Maynard and Seth W. Lloyd
Well, that didn’t take long. As we noted in January, although the Federal Circuit had no vacancies during President Trump’s term, several judges were eligible or soon-to-be-eligible to create a vacancy for President Biden ( see There’s a New President. How could that Affect
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March 16, 2021 - Last Week in the Federal Circuit
Last Week in the Federal Circuit (March 8-12): The NeverEnding Story of the AIA’s No-Appeal Bar
By: Seth W. Lloyd
Wow—it was a busy week at the Court last week. Lots of opinions, and lots of precedential ones. There were lots of good choices out there, so we sort of threw a dart at a board to see which one to write about. In
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March 16, 2021 - Substantive Orders Update
Order of Interest – Can You Challenge The Denial Of Institution Without Showing A Deprivation Of Life, Liberty, Or Property?
By: Brian R. Matsui
Case: Mylan Labs. Ltd. v. Janssen Pharm., N.V. , No. 21-1071 Originating tribunal: Patent Trial and Appeal Board Date: March 12, 2021 Panel: Judges Newman, Moore, and Stoll, with Judge Moore writing the precedential order Result: Appeal dismissed, and mandamus denied The Court dove
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March 10, 2021 - Federal Circuit Insights
The Lifespan of a Rehearing Petition
By: Brian R. Matsui
You’ve lost your case before a Federal Circuit panel and you file a rehearing petition. When can you expect good news (or at least some news…)? Timing of rehearing decisions For a rehearing petitioner, the threshold positive sign to look for is a call
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March 08, 2021 - Last Week in the Federal Circuit
Last Week in the Federal Circuit (March 1-5): Purely Functional Claiming And Means-Plus-Function Elements
By: Seth W. Lloyd
Last week was argument week, and the Federal Circuit previewed its new YouTube channel for streaming live arguments (sadly, audio only for now). Still, that didn’t slow the Federal Circuit down in issuing opinions, including six precedential ones. Below we provide our usual weekly
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