This morning, the Federal Circuit issued a precedential opinion in a veterans case and a nonprecedential opinion in a patent case. The court also issued three Rule 36 judgments. Here are the introductions to the opinions and a list of the Rule 36 judgments.
Batcher v. Wilkie (Precedential)
This case is about apportionment of a veteran’s disability compensation benefits. The veteran, John J. Batcher, appeals a decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims upholding the Board of Veterans’ Appeals’ grant of such apportionment to his now ex-wife, Roberta Batcher, under 38 U.S.C. § 5307 and its implementing regulations. Mr. Batcher contends that by affirming this apportionment, the Veterans Court decision improperly superseded a preexisting state-court-sanctioned separation agreement absolving Mr. Batcher of all spousal maintenance obligations. Because Mr. Batcher’s preclusion, preemption, and statutory construction arguments lack merit, we affirm.
Garmin International, Inc. v. Logantree, LP (Nonprecedential)
Garmin International, Inc. and Garmin USA, Inc. (collectively, Garmin) appeal from two final written decisions of the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (the Board) upholding the patentability of certain claims of U.S. Patent No. 6,059,576 (the ’576 patent). Because substantial evidence supports the Board’s finding that Garmin failed to meet its burden of showing that the challenged claims are unpatentable under 35 U.S.C. § 103, we affirm.