Supreme Court Docket Report - March 31, 2014

Yesterday, the Supreme Court granted certiorari in one case of interest to the business community:

Patent Act—Claim Construction—Standard of Appellate Review

In patent litigation, district courts are required to construe the claims of applicable patents to determine their meaning and scope—critical threshold issues that will often prove dispositive of claims for patent infringement or invalidity. Given the significance of claim construction, many litigants appeal so-called Markman orders to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. Since 1998, the Federal Circuit has treated Markman orders as matters of law to be reviewed de novo. And last month, the Federal Circuit reaffirmed its practice of de novo review en banc in a sharply divided 6-to-4 decision.