Here is a report on recent news and commentary related to the Federal Circuit and its cases. Today we highlight:
- an article explaining how the Federal Circuit held that claims in three patents covering profitability-calculation methods are ineligible;
- an article reporting how USPTO Director John Squires asked the Federal Circuit to remand tech companies’ appeal of a $253 million patent judgment back to the Patent Trial and Appeal Board; and
- an article highlighting how Senators Ashley Moody and Chris Coons introduced a bill, the Better Bench Act, that would let judges on the Federal Circuit and the U.S. Court of Federal Claims live anywhere in the United States instead of within 50 miles of Washington, D.C.
Rose Esfandiari wrote an article for IPWatchdog explaining how the Federal Circuit recently held that claims in three patents covering profitability-calculation methods are ineligible, agreeing that “performing calculations based on collecting and analyzing information is an abstract idea.” As explained by Esfandiari, the court explained how, “if a claim is so broad that it can be practiced without the alleged inventive concept . . . then the claim cannot be ‘significantly more’ than the abstract idea itself and fails at step two.” For more information, check out the opinion in Berkeley IEOR v. W.W. Grainger Inc.
Theresa Schliep authored an article for Law360 reporting how USPTO Director John Squires asked the Federal Circuit to remand tech companies’ appeal of a $253 million patent judgment back to the Patent Trial and Appeal Board, arguing the case presents “novel and complex issues about how to apply” the agency’s September 2025 guidance on reconciling PTAB and jury findings. According to Schliep, Tim Fink of O’Melveny & Myers, a former vice chief administrative patent judge not involved in the case, said the request to “take back” an already-reversed board decision is unusual because the USPTO Solicitor “generally does not try to ‘take back’ an appealed decision unless it thinks the Board’s decision has serious problems and cannot be credibly defended before the court.”
Blake Brittain filed an article with Reuters highlighting how Senators Ashley Moody and Chris Coons introduced a bill, the Better Bench Act, that would let judges on the Federal Circuit and the U.S. Court of Federal Claims live anywhere in the United States instead of within 50 miles of Washington, D.C. According to Brittain, Moody said that, “[f]or a court that covers the entire country, we should be considering nominating judges from everywhere in America based on merit — not their proximity to the D.C. bubble.” Coons added that “[f]or too long, we have limited the pool of judges available to take on the toughest IP and federal contract cases to those willing to uproot their lives and move to Washington, D.C.”