Archive for March, 2020

Oral argument by telephone

Sunday, March 22nd, 2020

Many of the April oral arguments at the Federal Circuit are scheduled to be conducted by telephone. The court has rarely conducted oral arguments by telephone in the past. If you would like to listen to an example of an oral argument at the Federal Circuit that was conducted by telephone, see this previous post from 2013: [Link].

Jurisdictional statements

Friday, March 13th, 2020

The first step in any precedential opinion issued by the Federal Circuit is an explanation of why it has jurisdiction. The court clearly takes that step seriously and a party cannot even waive the jurisdictional issue. It occurred to me in reading yesterday’s short per curiam disposition that the jurisdictional statement was not present. And, the basis for the court finding that it has jurisdiction is certainly not explained in Rule 36 judgments. Like all things with respect to Rule 36 judgments, we have to assume the court got it right . . . because it didn’t say so.

Quote for the day

Wednesday, March 4th, 2020

“The patent law is designed to serve the small inventor as well as the giant research organization.”

Arkie Lures, Inc. v. Gene Larew Tackle, Inc., 119 F.3d 953 (Fed. Cir. 1997)(Judge Newman, author).