Yesterday, the U.S. Senate confirmed Jimmie Reyna to a seat on the Federal Circuit by a vote of 86-0. Reyna was nominated on September 29, 2010, a mere 187 days before his confirmation.
Last year, Judge Kathleen O’Malley was nominated to the court on March 10 and confirmed December 22, or 287 days later.
Meanwhile, Edward DuMont was nominated April 14, 2010 to the other vacant seat. As of next week, his nomination will have been pending for a year. He has yet to receive a confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
As of today, the Federal Circuit has 11 active judges for its 12 seats. Rumor has it that several additional judges who are eligible will be moving to senior status in the near future.
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April 6, 2011 at 4:37 am |
The high pleading standard recently set by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit for whistleblower cases against companies that falsely label products as patented is weeding cases out of dockets across the country.
The court’s unanimous March 15 order in In Re BP Lubricants USA Inc. has thinned out at least 18 cases so far, according to lawyers involved in and watching the cases.
In BP Lubricants, Judge Richard Linn wrote that the same particularity requirement that applies to fraud cases “applies to false marking claims and that a complaint alleging false marking is insufficient when it only asserts conclusory allegations that a defendant is a ‘sophisticated company’ and ‘knew or should have known’ that the patent expired.”
July 25, 2011 at 8:50 am |
[...] is also another vacancy on the court as Congress has not acted on Edward DuMont’s nomination since April [...]