FedCircuitBlog

Guest Post by James M. Eisenmann

In a series of precedential decisions in 2020 (and early 2021), the Federal Circuit limited the impact of the Department of Veterans Affairs Accountability and Whistleblower Protection Act — holding that U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) still may review the reasonableness of imposed penalties and that Veterans Affairs (VA) may not use 38 U.S.C. § 714 to remove employees for conduct or performance that occurred prior to the enactment of the Act. See, Sayers v. Dep’t of Veterans Affairs, 954 F.3d 1370 (Fed. Cir. 2020); Harrington v. Dep’t of Veterans Affairs, 981 F.3d 1356 (Fed. Cir. 2020); and Brenner v. Dep’t of Veterans Affairs, No. 19-2032 (Fed. Cir. March 9, 2021).

• Federal Circuit Finds Article III Standing – In Grit Energy Solutions, LLC v. Oren Technologies, LLC, the Federal Circuit was asked to determine whether Grit Energy lacked Article III standing to appeal a PTAB decision.
• Interpreting the Veterans Affairs Accountability and Whistleblower Protection Act – James Eisenmann explains how to interpret Sayers v. DVA.
• Uber Gets Win Over Location-Sharing Patent – The Federal Circuit finds it would have been obvious to combine prior art location plotting patents.

Here’s the latest.

Here is a report on recent news and commentary related to the Federal Circuit and its cases. Today’s report highlights an article about a recent Federal Circuit decision related to the 2017 Veterans Affairs Accountability and Whistleblower Protection Act, a call to fast-track a case related to GI Bill benefits, a comment on the Federal Circuit’s recent decision to provide access to live audio of oral arguments during the court’s April 2020 session, and a blog post about the denial of a motion to stay issuance of the mandate in Arthrex.

This morning the Federal Circuit issued one precedential opinion in a veterans case, one precedential opinion in a government contracts case, and two nonprecedential opinions in patent cases. Here are the introductions to the opinions.