By Robert A. Pollock, Mark J. Feldstein, Barbara R. Rudolph, Joyce Craig, Elizabeth D. Ferrill, Corinne Miller LaGosh, Michelle Pacholec, Kara Specht, Michael A. Stramiello, & Jonathan R. K. Stroud | 63 Am. U. L. Rev. 1051 (2014)
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit’s year of decisions in 2013 may be best remembered for the issues not finally decided, the intracourt disputes revealed, and the foundations laid for future changes in the law. In other words, notwithstanding over 100 precedential patent decisions, each with its own important implications to the law, 2013 looked more like a “work in progress” than a final chapter.
As evident from the case summaries that follow, there was no shortage of important Federal Circuit opinions in 2013. The dissents and disputes are telling windows into the highest levels of judicial reasoning and part of the evolution of judicial opinion that should, ultimately, lead to consensus. As Justice Cardozo stated, “out of the attrition of diverse minds there is beaten something which has a constancy and uniformity and average value greater than its component elements.” Until then, the landscape on which we practice will remain dynamic.