FedCircuitBlog

Here is an update on recent en banc activity at the Federal Circuit. Since our last update, the en banc court decided a veterans case law week, addressing the question of whether equitable estoppel may be used against the government with respect to establishing the effective date of an award pursuant to 38 U.S.C. § 5110. Here are the details.

Here is an update on recent en banc activity at the Federal Circuit in patent cases. Highlights include a new petition presenting questions related to obviousness, a response brief addressing standards governing reissue, and denials of two petitions presenting questions related to definiteness and claim construction. Here are the details.

Here is an update on recent en banc activity at the Federal Circuit in patent cases. Highlights include a new petition presenting a question related to the standard of review of obviousness determinations and a response brief addressing what constitutes a final judgment for purposes of appellate jurisdiction. Here are the details.

Here is an update on recent en banc activity at the Federal Circuit in patent cases. Highlights include a new petition presenting questions related to patent reissue and the written description requirement; two new invitations for response to petitions presenting questions related to patent reissue, the written description requirement, and appellate jurisdiction; and denials of two petitions presenting questions related to the non-obviousness requirement and anticipation. Here are the details.

Here is an update on recent en banc activity at the Federal Circuit in patent cases. Highlights include a new petition filed in a case raising a question about what constitutes a final judgment for purposes of appellate jurisdiction, three new responses to petitions related to eligibility and design patent’s non-obviousness requirement, and two amicus briefs also related to design patent’s non-obviousness requirement. The court also denied two petitions raising questions about eligibility and infringement. Here are the details.

Here is an update on recent en banc activity at the Federal Circuit in patent cases. Highlights include new petitions filed in four cases raising questions about the non-obviousness and novelty patentability requirements, the definiteness requirement, and principles of claim construction. The court also denied two petitions raising questions about eligibility and infringement. Here are the details.

This morning, the Federal Circuit released a precedential order announcing that a majority of the judges in regular active service voted for sua sponte en banc consideration of a case involving an alleged violation of the Equal Pay Act. The court also released a precedential opinion in the same case, vacating a dismissal and remanding the case for further proceedings. In Part II.B of the opinion, the en banc court overruled one of the court’s prior opinions, which the court explains “added an extra element to an EPA claimant’s prima facie case—namely, a showing that the pay differential ‘is either historically or presently based on sex.’” Here is the text of the order and the introduction to the opinion.

Here is an update on recent en banc activity at the Federal Circuit in patent cases. The court received a response to a petition raising questions related to prosecution laches, invited a response to a petition raising questions related to patent eligibility, and received three amicus briefs supporting rehearing in two cases raising the same questions related to non-obviousness of designs under design patent law. Here are the details.

Here is an update on recent en banc activity at the Federal Circuit. In the only pending en banc case, a veterans case, the court received the appellee’s supplemental brief. As for patent cases, the court received a new petition raising a question related to the ability to revise infringement contentions during litigation and denied two petitions raising questions related respectively to vacatur of a preliminary injunction and claim construction. Here are the details.

Here is an update on recent en banc activity at the Federal Circuit in patent cases. The court received three petitions, one raising questions related to subject matter eligibility and two raising questions related to the applicable test for non-obviousness of designs under design patent law. The court invited a response to the petitions raising questions related to the applicable test for non-obviousness of designs under design patent law. Finally, the court denied a petition raising a question related to claim construction. Here are the details.