A potential flood of federal worker appeals to the Federal Circuit will be a “wake up call” for patent attorneys who’ve become accustomed to a mostly patent-focused docket at the court.
The U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board—which had no members for the entirety of the Trump administration—now has a two-member quorum for the first time in five years. The board, which awaits Senate confirmation of its third and final member, has now started issuing decisions to chip away at a backlog of nearly 3,600 cases concerning federal agency personnel, pay, and benefit decisions, as well as accusations of whistleblower retaliation.
The speed at which the board makes decisions will decide just how much the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit is affected, attorneys said.
A rapid wave of MSPB cases could strain the Federal Circuit’s resources to handle appeals over the next few months. A slower pace would mean patent attorneys will see gradual changes over the next few years.
“Every Federal Circuit practitioner should care about it even if they have no interest whatsoever in the MSPB,” said Christopher Suarez, an intellectual property litigator at Steptoe & Johnson LLP. “It’s going to be somewhat of a wake up call for the bar and frankly for the court because they’re going to be dealing with a lot more of these cases.”
He added that he believes it’ll be...
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