MORE PATENTS MAY PEND

摘要

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit is the final arbiter of most patent disputes. It also hears appeals in veterans' disability-benefit cases. And as Legal Times first reported on Feb. 4, the court's Chief Judge, Paul Michel, fears the next few years will see a flood of such cases from soldiers who served in Iraq and Afghanistan. (Claims filed in the court directly below the Federal Circuit have doubled since 2001.) Michel says his court's workload would be further stretched by a congressional bill under consideration that would result in more patent appeals.