Mar
15
Judge Cacheris, Please Hurry
Posted by Keeley Vega at 10:58 pm under Litigation, Patent.
On February 8th, Judge Cacheris heard summary judgment arguments in the Tafas v. Dudas case involving the PTO’s Final Rules (docket available here). A review of the proceedings is available here.
The issues addressed are numerous: what is the extent of the PTO’s rulemaking authority? Are the Final Rules within this authority? Do the Final Rules govern the conduct of proceedings within the Office? Were they made in accordance with section 553 of Title 5 (must they be)? Are the Final Rules inconsistent with law? Are they arbitrary or capricious? However, it’s not certain whether the court will even address all of these questions. The Rules could be considered substantive, leaving it unnecessary to address the secondary questions.
It has been five weeks and I’m getting anxious to hear the outcome (not that I believe that it won’t be appealed though). I thought the Eastern District of Virginia was known for moving quickly. And John White of the PLI Patent Blog thought the decision could be out after only a week. And, to make matters worse, the transcript of the arguments uploaded to the docket only contains the first page– but I’m working on finding a complete version.
So please, Judge Cacheris, my “refresh” key and I can’t wait any longer.