Congress should consider responding to a Federal Circuit ruling that administrative patent judges were unconstitutionally appointed, the chairman of the House Judiciary IP subcommittee said.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit said in Arthrex v. Smith & Nephew that judges on the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s Patent Trial and Appeal Board should have been nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate. The panel remedied the situation by severing part of a 2011 law that prevented the judges, appointed by the Secretary of Commerce, from being fired without cause.
“It goes against the idea of ...