FedCircuitBlog

On Monday, March 1, 2021, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the closely-watched patent case, United States v. Arthrex. As we previewed a couple days prior to argument, two main issues were considered by the Court. First, for purposes of the Appointments Clause, whether administrative patent judges (APJs) of the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) are principal or inferior officers. And second, if APJs are indeed principal officers, whether the Federal Circuit properly cured any Appointments Clause defect through the remedy it provided. Here are the details.

Recently, a panel of the Federal Circuit granted panel rehearing in GlaxoSmithKline LLC v. Teva Pharmaceuticals USA, Inc. In this case, Teva petitioned the en banc court to reconsider the panel’s decision that Teva induced infringement through use of a skinny label on its generic version of GlaxoSmithKline’s (GSK) drug Coreg. The panel treated the petition as requesting panel rehearing, granted the petition, and ordered a second oral argument in the case, which was held this morning. Here are the details of the case.

Late yesterday the Federal Circuit granted a petition for a writ of mandamus related to a transfer motion filed in the Western District of Texas in a patent case. Notably, the Federal Circuit found that “the district court’s handling of the transfer motion up until this point in the case has amounted to egregious delay and blatant disregard for precedent.” As a result, the Federal Circuit ordered the district court to “stay all proceedings concerning the substantive issues in the case until such time that it has issued a ruling on the transfer motion capable of providing meaningful appellate review of the reasons for its decision.” Presumably the Federal Circuit issued the order late yesterday given that the district court had scheduled a hearing on the transfer motion for this morning. But, according to yesterday’s order, the district court scheduled that hearing only after the Federal Circuit ordered the filing of a response to the petition by yesterday. Here is the text of yesterday’s order.

Today, the Federal Circuit Clerk’s Office provided a notice advising the public that, while in-person filings are now available, the court encourages the filing of paper documents through the U.S. Postal Service. Here is the text of today’s announcement.

This afternoon the Federal Circuit announced that it has adopted new procedures for the handling of what it is calling “highly sensitive documents.” The court indicated it is doing so given “recent disclosures of widespread breaches of both private sector and government computer systems.” Notably, the court indicated it will treat these documents “outside of the court’s electronic case filing system.” Moreover, it will adjust not only how it will handle documents filed in the future, but also how it will handle highly sensitive documents that already have been electronically filed both in pending and even closed cases. Here is the text of today’s announcement, which includes links to the related order and modified Electronic Filing Procedures, along with a summary.

Today the Federal Circuit announced modified procedures for nonelectronic filing and submissions for the time period of January 13 through January 20. This time period coincides with preparations for Inaugural Day on January 20. Here is the text of today’s announcement.

On Friday the Supreme Court granted the petition for certiorari in Minerva Surgical, Inc. v. Hologic, Inc., a patent infringement case decided by the Federal Circuit in April of last year. In this case, the petitioner asks the Court to abandon or limit the doctrine of assignor estoppel, which prevents a party who in the past assigned a patent from later contesting the patent’s validity. Here are the details.

Today the Federal Circuit and the Court of Federal Claims issued a joint order extending limitations on access to the Federal Courts Building until January 21, 2021. The Federal Circuit also issued a notice with additional information related to the order. Here is the text from the court’s notice.

This morning, and no doubt related to the election tomorrow, the Federal Circuit issued a Notice of Modified Procedures for Nonelectronic Filing and Submissions. In the Notice, the court announced that, effective tomorrow morning and until further notice, the Clerk’s Office is suspending access to its night drop box as well as in-person paper filings and submissions in favor of filing through the U.S. Postal Service. Here is the text of the announcement and a link to the relevant administrative order.

This morning the Federal Circuit and the Court of Federal Claims issued a joint order extending limitations on access to the Federal Courts Building until November 22, 2020. The Federal Circuit also issued a notice with additional information related to the order. Here is the text from the court’s announcement.