Federal Circuitry

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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March 01, 2021 - Last Week in the Federal Circuit
Last Week in the Federal Circuit (February 22-26): Who Needs Cross Examination? Issue Preclusion Before the PTAB
By: Brian R. Matsui
All eyes are on Arthrex this week, right? So of course we decided to take a look at a Court decision reviewing the Board, and one that—so says the dissent—creates a circuit split. Below we provide our usual weekly statistics and our case of
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February 22, 2021 - Last Week in the Federal Circuit
Last Week in the Federal Circuit (February 15-19): Equitable Intervening Rights
The Federal Circuit had a slow week, issuing only 8 decisions (just 3 of them precedential). But among those was an interesting case with a question of first impression about the doctrine of equitable intervening rights. Below we provide our usual weekly statistics and
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February 16, 2021 - Last Week in the Federal Circuit
Last Week in the Federal Circuit (February 8-12): Patent Term Adjustments When Examiners Back Down
Did you remember to send your favorite examiner a Valentine’s Day card? Okay, so maybe that’s not the typical applicant/examiner relationship. But this week we do look at some potential consequences from the back and forth between examiners and applicants. Below we provide our
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February 08, 2021 - Last Week in the Federal Circuit
Last Week in the Federal Circuit (February 1-5): The Growing Universe of Printed Publications
Since yesterday was the Super Bowl, we assume that all of our readers spent today as we did, thinking about the Federal Circuit's recent decision in M&K Holdings about a video compression patent. If not, we've got you covered. Below we provide our usual weekly
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February 01, 2021 - Last Week in the Federal Circuit
Last Week in the Federal Circuit (January 25-29): Year 1993 and LTE Technology
By: Soo J. Park
Despite no precedential patent decisions at the Federal Circuit, the Court still addressed some interesting issues last week, including whether a license agreement from 1993 bars patent infringement claims on LTE technology 25 years later. Below we provide our usual weekly statistics and our
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January 25, 2021 - Last Week in the Federal Circuit
Last Week in the Federal Circuit (January 18-22): Factual Obviousness and Yet Another Arthrex Challenge
By: Keunbong (KB) Do Ph.D.
Although the Federal Circuit has had a busy January, last week was light on precedential decisions (just one, in a case from the MSPB). Below we provide our usual weekly statistics and our case of the week—our highly subjective selection based on whatever case
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January 19, 2021 - Last Week in the Federal Circuit
Last Week in the Federal Circuit: Waiver and Constitutional Avoidance
The Federal Circuit issued just one precedential opinion last week. But it’s an interesting one: The Court exercised its discretion to reach (or rather, avoid) a constitutional issue not pressed or passed upon by the trial court. Below we provide our usual weekly statistics
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January 11, 2021 - Last Week in the Federal Circuit
Last Week in the Federal Circuit (January 4-8): Mooting your opponent’s appeal
By: Brian R. Matsui and Seth W. Lloyd
Now that the new year has started, we’re seeing an uptick in precedential opinions. This week we decided to turn back to patent appeals, taking a look at IPRs and Article III—always a fun topic. Below we provide our usual weekly statistics and our
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December 21, 2020 - Last Week in the Federal Circuit
Last Week in the Federal Circuit (December 14-18): And/or confusion
By: Brian R. Matsui
Last week, we got what may be the last big batch of Federal Circuit opinions of 2020. (In 2019, only six more opinions issued between this time and the end of the year.) Although most of last week’s decisions were issued pretty speedily after
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