Chief Justice Roberts was interviewed the other day at the Fourth Circuit Judicial Conference. He was asked about the Supreme Court becoming an increasingly “hot bench.” A hot bench is when the judges or justices are extremely engaged in the oral argument and ask a lot of questions of the advocates.
I think it is fair to say that the Federal Circuit is a “hot bench” when certain issues are in dispute — most notably, 35 U.S.C. ยง101. The oral argument in Ultramercial v. Hulu is a good example: [Listen].