Every decision we've summarized — searchable, filterable, neutral.
The Federal Circuit reversed the Patent Trial and Appeal Board's determination that a patent claim was obvious, holding that the Board impermissibly imported limitations from the specification into the claim construction. The court clarified that a 'programming change' requires an alteration in the function of a device, not merely a change in stored data.
The Bankruptcy Appellate Panel for the Eighth Circuit dismissed an appeal because the debtor-appellant died and no personal representative was substituted within a reasonable time. The court held that without a party to prosecute the case, continuing the proceedings is improper under Federal Rule of Bankruptcy Procedure 8023.1.
The Eleventh Circuit affirmed the dismissal of Blair Clark's malicious prosecution claim because his complaint failed to identify a specific legal process that was constitutionally infirm. The court held that an officer's probable cause affidavit submitted to a prosecutor does not constitute the legal process required to sustain a Fourth Amendment malicious prosecution claim.
The Sixth Circuit denied a petition for review of a Board of Immigration Appeals decision denying cancellation of removal. The court held that the IJ's finding that the petitioner's U.S.-citizen children would not suffer exceptional and extremely unusual hardship was supported by substantial evidence.
The Federal Circuit vacated the Patent Trial and Appeal Board's obviousness determination because the Board failed to properly apply the KSR standard by not explaining how a person of ordinary skill would have been motivated to combine prior art references. The court declined to review the Board's decision denying the motion to terminate the inter partes review proceedings.
The Eighth Circuit affirmed the denial of a motion to compel arbitration, holding that the Schlacks brothers were not parties bound by the partnership agreement's arbitration clause. The court found no clear and unmistakable evidence that the brothers agreed to delegate arbitrability questions to an arbitrator or that equitable estoppel and agency principles applied to bind them.
The Eleventh Circuit affirmed Otis Crabbe's conviction for methamphetamine distribution, rejecting his claim that a stationhouse interrogation statement was involuntary. The court found the government met its burden to prove voluntariness and that the district court properly handled expert testimony, jury selection challenges, and lesser-included offense instructions.
The Sixth Circuit affirmed the denial of Efra Deh's petition for review, holding that generalized allegations of interpreter dialect issues do not warrant reopening removal proceedings. The court found Deh failed to demonstrate specific mistranslations that would have altered the immigration judge's credibility determination.
The Federal Circuit affirmed the Patent Trial and Appeal Board's finding that FedEx's sensor network patent claim 26 was obvious but vacated and remanded the decision for claims 9 and 23-25. The court held that the Board violated the Administrative Procedure Act by failing to address a specific argument FedEx raised regarding the requirement that a single power management instruction alter both the master node and ID nodes.
The Eighth Circuit affirmed the denial of Jersom Andu Mena's motion to dismiss his federal firearms indictment, holding that facial Second Amendment challenges to 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(3) are foreclosed by binding circuit precedent. The court clarified that the Supreme Court's recent decision in United States v. Rahimi does not undermine the established authority of United States v. Veasley.
