Here is a report on recent news and commentary related to the Federal Circuit and its cases. Today’s report highlights:
- an article covering how Judge Pauline Newman is “pushing back” against her suspension from the bench over claims she is unfit for duty;
- a report that “[t]he D.C. Circuit doesn’t have the authority to unseal documents related to the Federal Circuit’s suspension of Judge Pauline Newman”;
- a piece highlighting “numerous interesting, precedential decisions from the Federal Circuit on a range of patent issues” in the second half of 2024; and
- an article providing “a statistical review of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit’s decisions in patent cases during calendar year 2024.”
Saleen Martin published an article with USA Today covering how 97-year-old Judge Pauline Newman is “pushing back” against her suspension from the bench over claims she is unfit for duty. Martin notes how multiple people have “raised concerns about potential ‘impairment of cognitive abilities (i.e. attention, focus, confusion and memory).'” Conversely, Martin notes how Newman’s attorney claims she has “been examined by two psychiatrists and one neurosurgeon” and that “[a]ll three professionals, independently of one another, concluded that Judge Newman is ‘unusually cognitively intact, and is fully able to perform her judicial duties.'”
Lauren Castle filed a report with Bloomberg Law stating that Chief Judge Moore has argued the “D.C. Circuit doesn’t have the authority to unseal documents related to the Federal Circuit’s suspension of Judge Pauline Newman.” Castle highlights how a special committee for the Federal Circuit “said the records Newman asked to unseal were made confidential by judicial misconduct and disability proceedings, and nothing in the law governing such actions allows the subject to waive that confidentiality.” Castle noted, though, that the “special committee plan[s] to release Newman’s requested materials once redactions are made and after ‘an appropriate stage’ of the committee’s investigation.”
Megan Woodworth and Sophia Gunzburg co-authored a piece for IP Watchdog highlighting “numerous interesting, precedential decisions from the Federal Circuit on a range of patent issues” in the second half of 2024. The piece “summarizes six of those opinions” and makes a special note of how, “between June 1 and December 1, 2024, the Federal Circuit denied all ten mandamus petitions relating to venue issues that it received.”
Dan Bagatell published an article for Law 360 providing “a statistical review of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit’s decisions in patent cases during calendar year 2024.” Bagatell highlights how “the Federal Circuit issued fewer patent decisions in 2024 despite its ever-increasing backlog of argument-ready cases.” He also resports that, in 2024, “U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board cases still predominated” the court’s patent docket.