FedCircuitBlog

Here is a report on recent news and commentary related to the Federal Circuit and its cases. Today we highlight:

• an article describing how John Squires, “nominated by President Donald Trump to run the US Patent and Trademark Office,” was scheduled to appear at a confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday of this week;
• a follow-up article detailing how during his confirmation hearing John Squires said the country’s patent system “is going in the wrong direction”;
• a blog post discussing “a significant development” for practice at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board; and
• a piece examining the impact of LKQ Corporation v. GM Global Technology Operations LLC, an en banc case that “threw out longstanding tests for determining if design patents are invalid as obvious.”

This morning the Federal Circuit released two precedential opinions, four nonprecedential opinions, and one nonprecedential order. The first precedential opinion comes in an en banc design patent case. In it, the en banc court overruled the long-standing Rosen-Durling test used to assess the nonobviousness of design patents. Notably, Judge Lourie concurred in the judgment, suggesting it was unnecessary to overrule Rosen and Durling. In the second precedential opinion, a panel vacated and remanded a judgment of Central District Court of California in a patent infringement case over a dissent by Judge Mayer. As for the nonprecedential opinions, the first affirms two separate dismissals by the Merit Systems Protection Board in a pro se case, the second affirms a judgment of the Patent Trial and Appeal Board, the third dismisses an appeal in a veterans case for lack of jurisdiction, and the fourth affirms another dismissal by the Merit Systems Protection Board for lack of jurisdiction. The nonprecedential order is a dismissal. Here are the introductions to the opinions and links to the orders.