The Federal Circuit affirmed the Court of Federal Claims' judgment that the United States cannot offset the $145 million damages owed to the Yankee utilities by the investment earnings of their nuclear decommissioning trusts, holding that those earnings are not mitigation of the government's breach.
Federal court
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit
The 40 most recent opinions analysed by CaseDiver, newest first. Opening a case goes straight to the full opinion reader.
Recent opinions
The Federal Circuit affirmed the Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims, holding that a veteran is ineligible for educational assistance for a flight‑training course unless the course is both FAA‑approved under 38 U.S.C. §3672(b)(2)(A)(ii) and offered by an educational institution of higher learning for credit toward a…
The Federal Circuit affirmed the district court’s construction of the term “pH between 7.0 and 9.0” in claim 1 of U.S. Patent No. 8,759,320, holding that the phrase requires the pH to be maintained throughout the oxidation step.
The Federal Circuit affirmed the Patent Trial and Appeal Board’s determination that claims 1 and 3–5 of the ’958 patent are unpatentable as obvious, finding the Board’s claim construction, inherency analysis, analogicity assessment, and rejection of secondary considerations were supported by substantial evidence.
The court affirmed the Board's determination that all challenged claims of the patent were unpatentable as obvious over the asserted prior art. It held that substantial evidence supported the Board's findings that the prior art taught enabling buffer data paths according to a latency parameter and enabling data paths…
The court affirmed the Board's determinations that all challenged claims would have been obvious over the asserted combination of prior art. It upheld the Board's construction of the claim limitations concerning event-based ordering, previously generated objects, the distinction between images and objects, and…
The court dismissed for lack of jurisdiction the portion of the appeal challenging denial of sanctions because the request arose solely from the agency's processing of discrimination claims in a mixed case, which petitioner had abandoned.
The court affirmed the district court’s determination that the asserted claims of the ’439, ’440, and ’015 patents satisfy the written-description requirement because the specification identifies the chemical name, formula, and crystalline structure of the claimed cabozantinib (L)-malate salt genus.
The Federal Circuit reversed the Court of Federal Claims’ summary judgment awarding a refund of net investment income tax paid by a U.S. citizen residing in Canada. It held that the Internal Revenue Code does not authorize foreign tax credits against the net investment income tax and that the U.S.-Canada Convention…
The court held that the U.S.-France tax Convention does not permit the Christensens to use French income taxes as a credit against their U.S. net investment income tax. The Convention's U.S.
The court affirmed the Board’s determinations in both inter partes review proceedings. It upheld the construction of claim 1’s “the rendered first webpage” limitation as referring to the previously rendered version from which the corresponding image was captured, found substantial evidence supporting the Board’s…
The court affirmed the district court’s rulings on all three appeals. It upheld the denial of a new infringement trial because substantial trial evidence supported the jury’s finding that LTE-compliant products need not use a collision-free dedicated preamble, and it upheld summary judgment because the Qualcomm…
The court held that claims broadly reciting optimization of communication constellations for parallel-decode capacity are patent-ineligible because they claim an abstract, result-oriented concept without specifying the manner of achieving it.
The court held that it lacked jurisdiction over Martin’s petition because he continued to pursue disability-discrimination claims arising from an action appealable to the Merit Systems Protection Board.
The court dismissed the appeal for lack of jurisdiction because the claimant challenged the application of established law to the facts rather than a legal interpretation reviewable under the court's statutory jurisdiction.
The court affirmed the Board’s determination that Apple failed to prove certain claims unpatentable because the claimed “multiplexed signals” require combining multiple signal streams into a composite signal transmitted simultaneously over one shared pathway, and the cited references did not disclose that limitation.
The court affirmed the Board’s decision sustaining Duran’s removal for medical inability to perform because substantial evidence supported the Board’s reliance on her disability-retirement statements, medical evidence, and the finding that she failed to provide requested clarification.
The court affirmed dismissal of the inventors’ complaint for lack of Article III standing. The organizations did not plausibly allege an imminent future injury because their claimed diversion of resources was indirect and did not directly interfere with core organizational activities, and their members either lacked a…
The court held that the 2006 version of the regulation governing reconsideration based on newly received service department records was applied prospectively and properly to Miller's claim.
The court affirmed the Merit Systems Protection Board’s decision sustaining Harris-Campbell’s removal from federal service. It held that the Board did not abuse its discretion by considering Tax Court materials and a stipulation to establish the amount of her settled tax liability, and that any alleged evidentiary…
The court dismissed the appeal for lack of jurisdiction because the claimant's challenge to a noncompensable disability rating was a substantive challenge to the VA rating schedule.
The court affirmed dismissal of VDPP's patent-infringement complaint without leave to amend because the proposed amendment failed to plausibly plead compliance with the patent-marking notice requirement, including by VDPP's licensees.
The court affirmed the Board’s determinations that all challenged claims of the three patents were unpatentable as obvious over combinations of the cited prior art. It held that substantial evidence supported the Board’s findings of motivation to combine, disclosure of the claimed correlation limitations, and…
The court affirmed the Board’s determination that Bosch failed to prove the challenged patent claims obvious. Substantial evidence supported the Board’s finding that the prior-art reference disclosed a flexible membrane that would flex during actuation, inconsistent with the claimed hydraulic fluid acting…
The court affirmed the Board’s determination that the challenged claims of the patent were unpatentable as obvious. It held that the cited scientific publication was reasonably pertinent analogous art, that the Board’s consideration of that theory complied with the APA or was harmless in any event, and that…
The court affirmed dismissal of all six claims for lack of subject-matter jurisdiction. The salary claims did not identify a presently due monetary entitlement under a money-mandating statute and sought equitable and prospective relief beyond the Court of Federal Claims' authority.
The court affirmed the denial of a preliminary injunction because Jacki Easlick failed to show a likelihood of success on its design-patent infringement claim or irreparable harm.
The en banc court held that the Veterans Employment Opportunities Act guarantees veterans and preference eligibles who are current federal employees the right to compete for merit-promotion vacancies open to applicants outside the agency's workforce.
The court summarily affirmed the Court of Federal Claims's denial of Ricks's motion to proceed in forma pauperis because his opening brief did not present a cogent, nonfrivolous challenge to that determination and instead appeared to attack his criminal conviction.
The court granted the Merit Systems Protection Board's unopposed motion to waive the applicable procedural rule and remanded the matter for further proceedings. The remand permits the administrative judge to clarify the legal standards applied and, if necessary, allow Roberson to submit additional briefing, without…
The court dismissed the appeal because the notice of appeal from the Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims was filed outside the jurisdictional 60-day deadline. It also denied mandamus relief because the petitioner had an adequate alternative remedy through a timely appeal and could seek relief from the Court of…
The court granted Maxeon’s motion to dismiss the appeal as moot because Maxeon’s unilateral covenant not to sue eliminated the controversy. Because the mootness resulted from the unilateral action of the party that prevailed before the Board, the court vacated the Board’s decision as to claim 12, but declined to order…
The Federal Circuit affirmed the Court of International Trade's final order sustaining Commerce's redetermination of a 31.63% separate rate in the sixth administrative review of an antidumping-duty order on multilayered wood flooring from China.
The Federal Circuit affirmed the Court of International Trade's decision sustaining Commerce's redetermination, made under respectful protest, that Fedmet's imported bricks containing any amount of alumina fall outside the scope of the antidumping and countervailing duty orders on magnesia carbon bricks from Mexico…
The Federal Circuit, per curiam, denied Range of Motion Products' petitions for panel rehearing and rehearing en banc in this design patent case, leaving intact the panel decision affirming summary judgment of non-infringement of a design patent for a handheld massage device.
The Federal Circuit affirmed the Veterans Court's decision upholding the Board's denial of service connection for Hernandez's tinnitus, eye disability, and migraine claims. The court held that although the Federal Rules of Evidence do not bind VA and Board proceedings, the Board permissibly used the principle from…
The Federal Circuit reversed the special master's finding that a pro se Vaccine Act petitioner who mailed his petition by certified first-class mail ten days (eight business days) before the limitations deadline failed to exercise reasonable diligence, holding that equitable tolling requires a case-by-case analysis of…
The Federal Circuit vacated the Board's IPR final written decision holding claims 1-15 of the '409 patent unpatentable as obvious and remanded. The court held that under AIA 35 U.S.C.
The Federal Circuit affirmed the Veterans Court's affirmance of the Board's denial of an effective date earlier than one year before Richard Ley filed his disability claim for service-connected chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). The court held that the majority opinion in Taylor v.
The Federal Circuit reversed the Court of International Trade's judgment invalidating the Department of Commerce's 15-day requirement for domestic interested parties to file a notice of intent to participate in sunset reviews of antidumping duty orders.