Here is a report on recent news and commentary related to the Federal Circuit and its cases. Given the new year, today’s report covers several lists of 2019’s most important cases in the areas of patents, government contracts, and “access to justice” rulings.
Jan Wolfe recently filed a report for Reuters discussing the “five biggest patent law decisions of 2019.” Similarly, over at IPWatchdog, Gene Quinn and Eileen McDermott surveyed the patent landscape and identified their “Top 10 Patent Stories of 2019.” Not to be outdone, they also posted a two–part story on the “Top 10 Patent Stories of the Decade 2010-2019.”
At Law.com, Scott Graham authored an update on the case topping the lists of the most important patent cases from 2019, Arthrex v. Smith & Nephew. He reported on the “massive shock waves . . . . reverberating through the patent bar, academia and in Congress.” Since his article, note that all of the parties involved in the case have petitioned the Federal Circuit for en banc rehearing.
Law360 published its own two-part story on government contracts cases, first identifying the “Top 5 Gov’t Contracts Cases of 2019” and then identifying the “Top Gov’t Contracts Cases to Watch in 2020.”
Law360 also reported on class actions in veterans cases as one of its “Other Access to Justice Rulings that Mattered in 2019.”