Here is a report on recent news and commentary related to the Federal Circuit and its cases. Today’s report highlights a call for the Federal Circuit to live stream an upcoming hearing for the public, a petition to the Supreme Court related to sovereign immunity and venue, and an appeal to the Federal Circuit of a ruling granting an extra year of college tuition benefits to thousands of veterans.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation published a press release highlighting a motion it filed in Uniloc 2017 LLC v. Apple Inc. urging “a panel of judges at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit to take a stand for open access to judicial proceedings and allow the public to watch by video an upcoming hearing in a patent case involving Apple.” The press release states that “Uniloc sought to seal documents that could reveal whether it actually owns the patents at issue, and therefore, whether it even has the right to sue anyone for infringing them.”
At PatentlyO, Dennis Crouch highlighted the petition to the Supreme Court in Board of Regents of the University of Texas System v. Boston Scientific Corp. As explained by Crouch, the University of Texas “sued Boston Scientific for patent infringement in” the Western District of Texas, but “venue turned out to be improper and the case was transferred to” the District of Delaware. Crouch notes that “Texas has argued that a state has the right to enforce its actions—seek redress for harms against the state—within the borders of its own state.” (We previously reported on the petition.)
Leo Shane III reported for MilitaryTimes that “Veterans Affairs officials have appealed a federal court ruling granting thousands of veterans an extra year of college tuition benefits.” Shane notes that, “[u]nder current department rules, veterans eligible for both Montgomery GI Bill and Post-9/11 GI Bill must sign away their rights to one of the education benefits programs in order to access the other.” According to Shane, the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims issued a ruling last fall allowing “another year of college funding for veterans who use up their Post-9/11 GI Bill benefits but still have Montgomery GI Bill eligibility.”