Circuit Overload: How the Federal Circuit Is Changing

Over the past five years, the Federal Circuit has experienced several changes, including new judges, pressure from the Supreme Court, and an influx of appeals from the PTAB. Managing Intellectual Property reached to Finnegan partner J. Michael Jakes for his thoughts on the changes at the Federal Circuit.

Jakes, who has argued more than 30 appeals at the Federal Circuit, identifies that recently, the Federal Circuit has been working more in sync and the judges are more willing to resolve issues en banc. In response to critics who believe the Federal Circuit's exclusive jurisdiction over patent cases should be abolished, Jakes disagrees. He believe that the Federal Circuit is more vital now with the increasing importance of the PTAB. He said, "The whole system is changing because of the inter partes review. I think having the Federal Circuit deal with these cases is actually more important for consistency because so much of the development of the law on validity is going to be coming from the Patent Office now. Splitting that up would get widely divergent results and would probably go back to where things were in the 1960s and 1970s, so the Court may have a more vital role now than before."