Skilled in the Art: The Federal Circuit Should See and Be Seen
There's no consensus yet at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit for converting telephone arguments to video. But Judge Todd Hughes has been advocating both publicly and in informal discussions with his colleagues for a couple of years to televise arguments, and he says a few of his colleagues are warming to the idea.
December 28, 2020 at 02:06 PM
6 minute read
Welcome to a special edition of Skilled in the Art. I'm Law.com IP reporter Scott Graham.
Yes, I know, last week I said that the newsletter would be on hiatus until January. But there've been some rumblings on an intriguing front at the Federal Circuit recently, and I want to address them right away. Because all I really want for Christmas … is video-streamed Federal Circuit arguments.
Left to right, Federal Circuit Judges Todd Hughes and Kara Stoll, and Winston & Strawn partner Kathi Vidal The Case for Streaming Federal Circuit Hearings
The Federal Circuit was in the vanguard of remote hearings last spring, nimbly pivoting to all-telephonic hearings without disrupting its argument schedule. But let's face it, after nine months, all-telephonic is getting pretty tiring. I'm not sure how much longer I can take each question being prefaced with, "This is Judge X …" Can the court manage this way for another three months? Sure. Six months? I suppose. But who knows exactly when it's going to be safe for the judges—who range in age from their 50s to 90s—to gather again under one roof with their clerks and staff, and lawyers who've just flown in from all over the country?
Twice in the last couple of months, Judge Todd Hughes has mentioned during telephonic arguments that he personally would prefer a video solution. Then at the Berkeley-Stanford Advanced Patent Law Institute earlier this month, Winston & Strawn partner Kathi Vidal drew out Judge Kara Stoll on the subject. Stoll indicated she's fine with the phone arrangement and even sees some advantages to it. But, she said, "I could see some time in the future, if we were having remote hearings, being able to use video."
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