Here is a report on recent news and commentary related to the Federal Circuit and its cases. Today’s report covers a comment on a Federal Circuit decision regarding standing for cross-appeals of adverse decisions in inter partes review proceedings, an article on the Federal Circuit’s ruling that recovery of salary costs associated with lobbying activities are unallowable in government contracts cases, and a notice from the USPTO of an update to the 2019 Revised Patent Subject Matter Eligibility Guidance.
At IPWatchdog, Eileen McDermott commented on the Federal Circuit’s recent decision in Knauf Insulation, Inc. v. Rockwool International, in which the court dismissed for lack of standing a cross-appeal by Rockwool of a Patent Trial and Appeal Board finding that certain claims in Knauf’s patent were not unpatentable as obvious. According to McDermott, he court “said that Rockwool would have had standing with respect to the directly appealed claims, but that it had ‘failed to establish that it has suffered an injury in fact for purposes of maintaining a cross-appeal.'” Despite the nonprecedential nature of the decision, “some have commented that the Court’s holding with respect to Rockwool’s lack of standing for a cross-appeal could have significant implications.”
Daniel Seiden reported for Bloomberg Law that the Federal Circuit, in Raytheon Company v. Secretary of Defense, affirmed “a ruling by the Armed Services Board of Contract Appeals,” holding that “Raytheon Co. can’t recover salary costs associated with lobbying activities under a federal contract to support the Patriot missile weapons system because the rule barring such recoveries hasn’t changed.” The Court ultimately rejected Raytheon’s argument “that a 1984 amendment to the rule created uncertainty as to whether . . . salaries of lobbyi[sts] could be recovered.”
The USPTO released a statement on a “notice of an update to the 2019 Revised Patent Subject Matter Eligibility Guidance (2019 PEG).” “The October 2019 Update responds to public comments regarding the 2019 PEG” and “includes an updated case law chart that lists selected eligibility cases from the U.S. Supreme Court and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.” The October 2019 update can be found on the subject matter eligibility page of the USPTO website.