717 Madison Place

The oral argument of the day is from ENZO BIOCHEM INC. et al. v. APPLERA CORP. et al., Appeal No. 2016-1881 (Fed. Cir. Aug. 2, 2017).  The oral argument is interesting for its discussion of doctrine of equivalents issues — particularly the specific exclusion principle.

You can listen to the oral argument here:

You can read Judge O’Malley’s opinion for the court [here].

Next month, the Federal Circuit will be sitting in New York for part of its oral argument calendar.    Here is a list of the oral argument proceedings as published on the Federal Circuit website on September 15, 2017:

The USPTO has updated its subject matter eligibility page with a new quick reference sheet entitled: “Interim Eligibility Guidance Quick Reference Sheet.”  It is reproduced below and [here].  The April 2017 version is available [here].  The end of July 2017 version is available [here].

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Back in 1984, the New York Times ran an article on William Bryson, now a senior judge of the Federal Circuit.  At the time, Judge Bryson was special counsel to the chief of the Organized Crime and Racketeering Section in the Department of Justice.

I thought his comments about eating at  Burger King prior to oral argument in New York were interesting [Link]:

For the oral argument, Mr. Bryson flies in the night before and studies in his hotel room ”either till I’m prepared, or I think it’s hopeless.”

Having It His Way

On every visit to each city where he handles cases, he has developed a ritual of having dinner and breakfast in the same undistinguished places. ”In New York, I go for dinner to a particular Burger King on Third Avenue,” he said. ”Burger King is perfect for my anxiety level. Otherwise, I’d be wasting good food on a churning stomach.”

He is ”crushed” if his regular place in any given city is closed when he arrives. ”I fear for the argument if that happens,” he said.

The typical oral argument may last 20 to 30 minutes. ”That’s not a lot of time for the anxiety I’ve described,” he conceded, ”but you can make a lot of mistakes in 10 minutes, which I’ve proved to be true.”

If Judge Bryson makes the trip with the Federal Circuit for oral arguments in New York in October, I wonder if he’ll keep up the Burger King tradition.

The oral argument for the Texas-patent-agent-privilege case is set for November 9, 2017 in front of the Texas Supreme Court.  Some of the briefs are available below.  See David Hricik’s post and brief below for more info. [Link]