Here is a report on recent news and commentary related to the Federal Circuit and its cases. Today’s report highlights news regarding a recent decision by the Federal Circuit in a veterans case related to Agent Orange exposure, today’s oral argument at the Supreme Court in three cases decided by the Federal Cirxuit, the Solicitor General’s recent amicus briefs suggesting the Supreme Court should wait to review a case concerning patent eligibility law, and a summary of Converse’s efforts to protect its Chuck Taylor shoe from alleged copyists.
Thomas Novelly, a writer with The Post and Courier, a newspaper in Charlestown, South Carolina, reported that “[t]he waiting game is over for thousands of Vietnam-era sailors suffering with illnesses from Agent Orange exposure after [the Federal Circuit] said the Department of Veterans Affairs can no longer delay their life-saving medical claims,” citing Thursday’s decision in Procopio v. Wilkie.
Mary Anne Pazanowski from Bloomberg Law focused attention on today’s oral argument at the Supreme Court in Maine, Moda, and Land of Lincoln. Attributing the idea to Manatt, Phelps & Phillips LLP’s Michael S. Kolber, Pazanowski characterized the case as “odd” but “consequential because it involves questions that go beyond health care.” (This blog previously published an argument preview for the consolidated appeal.)
Scott Graham from the National Law Journal published an article at Law.com explaining that while “Solicitor General Noel Francisco is technically turning thumbs down on two hot-button cases involving Section 101 of the Patent Act . . . . he says there’s another one coming next month that the court definitely should take up to address the confusion in the law” of patent eligibility. (This blog previous reported on the Solicitor General’s amicus briefs in the two “hot-button” cases, Hikma v. Vanda and HP v. Berkheimer.)
Finally, The Fashion Law Blog recently discussed Converse’s “sweeping trademark crackdown,” which began five years ago when it “name-checked 31 different brands and retailers, filing a whopping 22 different infringement lawsuits against the likes of Ralph Lauren, Tory Burch, H&M, Aldo, New Balance, Ed Hardy, FILA, and Wal-Mart, among others, for allegedly copying its then-106 year old staple Chuck Taylor shoe,” and which included an important 2018 decision by the Federal Circuit overturning a prior decision “Sketchers [had] characterized as a ‘major win.'”