Here is an update on recent activity at the Supreme Court in cases decided by the Federal Circuit. With respect to granted cases, there is no new activity to report since our last update. While no new petitions were filed with the Court, two waivers of right to respond were filed in a patent case addressing the non-obviousness requirement and four amicus briefs were filed in a veterans case regarding the benefit-of-the-doubt rule. Here are the details.
Granted Cases
There is no new activity to report.
Petitions
Waivers of Right to Respond
Two waivers of right to respond were filed in Vanda Pharmaceuticals Inc. v. Teva Pharmaceuticals USA, Inc., a patent case asking the Court to consider “[w]hether obviousness requires a showing of ‘predictable’ results, as this Court held in KSR, or a mere ‘reasonable expectation of success,’ as the Federal Circuit has held both before and after KSR?”
- Teva Pharmaceuticals USA, Inc. waived its right to respond.
- Apotex Inc. and Apotex Corp. waived their right to respond.
Amicus Briefs
Four amicus briefs were filed in Bufkin v. McDonough, a veterans case asking the Court to consider whether “the Veterans Court [must] ensure that the benefit-of-the-doubt rule was properly applied during the claims process in order to satisfy 38 U.S.C. § 7261(b)(1), which directs the Veterans Court to ‘take due account’ of VA’s application of that rule.” All of the amicus briefs support the petitioners:
- The National Law School Veterans Clinic Consortium filed an amicus brief;
- Military-Veterans Advocacy filed an amicus brief;
- The Federal Circuit Bar Association filed an amicus brief; and
- National Veterans Legal Services Program filed an amicus brief.