Welcome to Skilled in the Art. I'm Law.com IP reporter Scott Graham. It's been a busy week on the IP front, so let's get right to it. Qualcomm has fired its first shot at the FTC in the Ninth Circuit, Idenix looks to have an uphill battle for rescuing its $2.5 billion jury verdict against Gilead Sciences, and I've got a few parting thoughts on the Federal Circuit's latest cri de coeur on patent eligibility. As always, you are welcome to email me your own thoughts and follow me on Twitter.

Thomas Goldstein.

Two days after U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh unleashed her 233-page antitrust order on Qualcomm, I wrote that the “irresistible force of its appellate lawyers will face the immovable object of Koh's detailed factual findings.”

That contest is now formally under way at the Ninth Circuit, where Qualcomm has asked the court's motions panel to stay her injunction pending an expedited appeal. Along with counsel from Cravath, Quinn Emanuel, Keker and Morgan Lewis, Qualcomm has now added appellate specialist Tom Goldstein as counsel of record.

Goldstein, of Goldstein & Russell and SCOTUSblog, is well known for his Supreme Court advocacy, so maybe Qualcomm already is looking beyond the Ninth Circuit. I had a rundown on the company's motion earlier today on The Recorder.