A Piece of Federal Circuit History: Happy 91st Birthday to Judge Newman

Born on June 20, 1927 in New York City, Pauline Newman would go on to become the first judge appointed directly to the Federal Circuit, her predecessors having come to the court through the merger of the Court of Customs and Patent Appeals and the appellate division of the United States Court of Federal Claims.  Judge Newman is now the longest-serving judge in Federal Circuit history and has written many significant patent law decisions.  Among her many opinions are Intergraph Corp. v. Intel Corp., 195 F.3d 1346 (1999), which emphasized a patent owner’s right to refuse to license and Jazz Photo Corp. v. U.S. Int’l Trade Comm’n, 26 F.3d 1094 (2001), which clarified the law of repair and reconstruction at the time (since abrogated by Impression Prods., Inc. v. Lexmark Int’l, Inc., 137 S. Ct. 1523 (2017)).