With the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit set to consider a landmark case over the validity of human gene patents, attorneys for the plaintiffs are asking the court’s chief judge to recuse himself—before the panel that will hear the case has even been selected.
In a motion filed in late June, Christopher Hansen of the American Civil Liberties Union and Daniel Ravicher of PubPat, the Public Patent Foundation, claim that remarks made by Federal Circuit Chief Judge Randall Rader at a biotechnology industry event show he may have a biased view of the case in question, Association of Molecular Pathology v. U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, and he should not be one of the three judges to decide the appeal.
