The Federal Circuit will be sitting en banc in a non-patent case on February 7, 2017. In Parkinson v. DOJ, the Federal Circuit will consider the following issue:
Whether a preference eligible employee of the Federal Bureau of Investigation challenging an adverse employment action before the Merit Systems Protection Board under 5 U.S.C. § 7513(d) may raise whistleblower reprisal in violation of 5 U.S.C. § 2303 as an affirmative defense under 5 U.S.C. § 7701(c)(2)(C).
The date for oral argument in WI-FI ONE, LLC v. BROADCOM CORPORATION has not yet been set. The Federal Circuit has phrased the issue in that en banc case as:
Should this court overrule Achates Reference Publishing, Inc. v. Apple Inc., 803 F.3d 652 (Fed. Cir. 2015) and hold that judicial review is available for a patent owner to challenge the PTO’s determination that the petitioner satisfied the timeliness requirement of 35 U.S.C. § 315(b) governing the filing of petitions for inter partes review?