On October 10, 2024, the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) issued a final rule amending the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFARS) to establish a pilot program allowing for sole source follow-on contract...more
A string of recent decisions issued by the Civilian Board of Contract Appeals (CBCA) provide helpful reminders for construction contractors that have encountered difficulties in performance and are seeking relief from the...more
Effective August 1, 2022, Section 102(b)(7) of the Delaware General Corporation Law (DGCL) was amended to permit a Delaware corporation to include in its charter a provision eliminating or limiting the personal liability of...more
Agency interpretations of statutes no longer receive judicial deference in Ohio. That is the landmark holding of the Ohio Supreme Court’s recent decision in TWISM Enterprises, L.L.C. v. State Bd. of Registration for...more
Like most businesses, government contractors are in the customer service field and have been conditioned to operate by the old adage that the “The customer is always right.” After all, the customer pays the bills, right? As a...more
California's Limited Liability Company Act provides that when an LLC is a manager-managed limited liability company, as defined in Corp. Code § 17701.03(o), every manager is an agent of the LLC for purposes of its business...more
A panel of the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit considered whether the Patent Commissioner, on assuming the role of the US Patent & Trademark Office (PTO) Director, can constitutionally evaluate the rehearing of...more
ARTHREX, INC. v. SMITH & NEPHEW, INC. Before Moore, Reyna, and Chen. Appeal from the Patent Trial and Appeal Board. Summary: During vacancies of Director and Deputy Director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office,...more
Arthrex appealed a final written decision from an inter partes review (IPR) where the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) found all challenged claims of its patent anticipated. On appeal, Arthrex argued that the...more
[co-author: Jamie Dohopolski] Last year, the continued global COVID-19 pandemic forced American courts to largely continue the procedures set in place in 2020. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit was no...more
On Monday, in a highly-anticipated decision, a fractured Supreme Court issued its opinion in United States v. Arthrex, et al., striking a portion of the America Invents Act (AIA) as unconstitutional—but providing an...more
On June 21, 2021, the US Supreme Court issued its decision in Arthrex, Inc. v. Smith & Nephew, Inc., No. 19-1434. The Court found that the provisions of the America Invents Act establishing inter partes review proceedings...more
The US Supreme Court issued its highly anticipated decision on June 21 in United States v. Arthrex, Inc., addressing whether the authority of administrative patent judges (APJs) of the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) to...more
The US Supreme Court held in United States v. Arthrex that administrative patent judges’ ability to render final decisions on patentability on behalf of the Executive Branch is “incompatible with their status as inferior...more
In response to arguments made by the US government in an appeal pending before the US Supreme Court, members of Congress requested an investigation into the adequacy of due process afforded to Patent Trial and Appeal Board...more
An April 13, 2021 decision by the Federal Circuit denied a motion to vacate and remand PTAB decisions based on the Federal Circuit’s October 2019 decision in Arthrex v. Smith & Newman, Inc., et al., 941 F.3d 1320 (Fed. Cir....more
On March 1, 2021, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Arthrex v. Smith & Nephew, No. 19-1434, on March 1, 2021, asking whether the appointment of PTAB judges is consistent with the way that “Officers of the United...more
As discussed here, the Justices asked many questions in the oral argument in Arthrex this week on both questions: (1) whether there was an Appointments Clause defect and (2) if so, whether the Federal Circuit properly cured...more
The Supreme Court heard argument on Monday in U.S. v. Arthrex, involving the question of whether appointment of Administrative Patent Judges (APJs) and their authority under the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act violates the...more
On March 1, 2021, the Supreme Court heard the oral argument in Arthrex, Inc. v. Smith & Nephew, Inc., No. 19-1434. Two questions are before the Court. First, whether under the Appointments Clause, U.S. Const. Art. II, § 2,...more
On Monday the Supreme Court heard arguments in the Arthrex case (Nos. 19-1434; -1452; -1458) regarding whether PTAB judges are principal officers, who must be appointed by the president and confirmed, or whether they are...more
When oral arguments commence in United States v. Arthrex, Inc., No. 19-1434 (U.S.) on Monday, March 1, William H. Milliken, a director in Sterne Kessler’s Trial & Appellate Practice Group, will be live tweeting updates from...more
In October 2020, the Supreme Court agreed to review the Federal Circuit’s holding in Arthrex Inc. v. Smith & Nephew Inc., 941 F.3d 1320 (Fed. Cir. 2019), that the scheme for appointing the Patent Trial and Appeal Board’s...more
In October 2020, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear a case that could affect the viability of the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) as well as countless PTAB patentability decisions — past, present and future....more
In the wake of Arthrex’s initial merits brief, amicus briefs in support of Arthrex’s position were filed December 29th and 30th. In the Arthrex cases (docketed as 19-1434), the parties have persuaded the Supreme Court to...more