A Patently Interesting Trip to D.C.'s Federal Circuit

A group of seven members of the Student Intellectual Property Association ventured up to Washington D.C. on Nov. 6, to hear oral arguments at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. The students heard three arguments, all addressing patent appeals — an area over which the Federal Circuit has nationwide jurisdiction.

The first two cases had been appealed from district court decisions, while the third was an appeal from an inter partes reexamination proceeding at the USPTO. The attorneys each had 15 minutes to make their case. “Everyone in the group was very impressed by the display of oral advocacy by all of the lawyers,” noted attendee Billy Raska (L ’15).

The sitting judges on the panel were Chief Judge Sharon Prost, Judge Pauline Newman, and Judge Richard Linn. After the arguments, the students had the opportunity to meet with Judge Linn for a private Q&A session, during which he described the Federal Circuit’s process of writing opinions.

Kat Gavin (L ’16) shared, “Judge Linn took us on a step-by-step journey of how he approaches intellectual property cases, including how he and the other judges keep up with the technology required to make an informed decision on IP cases. Not only that, but he also discussed our individual plans and gave us real-world advice on how to pursue a career in IP law. I could not be more pleased with my experience.”

Judge Linn also led the students on a tour of one of the courtrooms and the behind-the-scenes area where the judges take an initial straw vote after hearing oral argument.

The group witnessed oral argument in the following three cases: Enzo Biochem Inc. v. Applera Corp., Insite Vision Incorporated v. Sandoz, Inc., and Kennametal, Inc. v. Ingersoll Cutting Tool Company. The audio recordings of these arguments can be found at http://www.cafc.uscourts.gov/oral-argument-recordings/search/audio.html.