Antitrust Suit Over Fracking Tech Patent Kicked to Fifth Circuit

An appeal of an antitrust suit alleging Phoenix Services LLC obtained a patent fraudulently and asserted it in bad faith belongs in the Fifth Circuit, the Federal Circuit ruled.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has jurisdiction over all appeals arising under the patent laws of the U.S. But this case arises under antitrust law and doesn’t depend on resolution of a substantial question of patent law, the Federal Circuit said in a precedential order.

“Simply put, this is not a patent case,” the Federal Circuit said. “Rather, this case purports to raise novel Fifth Circuit ...