The Odyssey Must Be Timed Just Right

The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit confirmed a district court's analysis under the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) of three challenges to the US Patent and Trademark Office (PTO), affirming the district court's lack of jurisdiction for the first two challenges and a time-bar for the third. Odyssey Logistics & Tech. Corp. v. Iancu, Case No. 19-1066 (Fed. Cir. May 22, 2020) (Hughes, J.). Essentially, Odyssey brought the first two challenges too early, and the third challenge too late.

Odyssey disagreed with certain PTO decisions and challenged their propriety in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. The district court dismissed the case, finding that it lacked subject matter jurisdiction as to the first two challenges, and that a six-year statute of limitations under 28 USC §2401 prevented it from hearing the third challenge. The district court thus found that Odyssey failed to state a claim. Odyssey timely appealed.