This morning the Federal Circuit released two nonprecedential opinions. The first comes in an employment case appealed from the Office of Congressional Workplace Rights; the second comes in a patent case appealed Patent Trial and Appeal Board. The Federal Circuit also released a nonprecedential order dismissing an appeal. Here are the introductions to the opinions and a link to the dismissal.
Leggett v. Office of Congressional Workplace Rights (Nonprecedential)
Ms. Julia Leggett filed a claim with the Office of Congressional Workplace Rights against her employing office, the Library of Congress, alleging that it unlawfully discriminated against her on the bases of her race, color, and national origin when she was not selected for the position of Supervisory Librarian (Acquisitions and Collections). An OCWR Merits Hearing Officer granted summary judgment for the Library on Ms. Leggett’s claim. The OCWR’s Board of Directors affirmed summary judgment, determining that Ms. Leggett failed to adduce sufficient evidence for a factfinder to conclude that the Library’s asserted non-discriminatory reasons for hiring a white selectee were a pretext for unlawful discrimination. Ms. Leggett now appeals the Board’s determination.
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In short, we agree with OCWR that Ms. Leggett has not shown that there is a genuine dispute that the Library’s asserted non-discriminatory reasons for passing on Ms. Leggett were a pretext for unlawful discrimination. We have considered Ms. Leggett’s remaining arguments and find them unpersuasive. For these reasons, we affirm the Board’s decision.
In re WinGen LLC (Nonprecedential)
WinGen LLC (“WinGen”) appeals from a final written decision of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Patent Trial and Appeals Board (“the Board”) affirming an examiner’s rejection of claims 1–4, 6, 7, and 9–15 of U.S. Patent Application 15/229,819 (“the ’819 application”), which is an application for reissue of U.S. Patent 9,313,959 (“the ’959 patent”) filed under 35 U.S.C. § 251. See Ex parte Ushio Sakazaki, Appeal No. 2021-002993 (P.T.A.B. Jul. 14, 2021) (“Decision”), J.A. 1–38. For the reasons provided below, we affirm.