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Law360 (May 18, 2020, 4:13 PM EDT) -- The Federal Circuit on Monday suspended in-person arguments "until further notice" because of the COVID-19 pandemic, abandoning its month-by-month approach to extending remote oral arguments.
Chief Circuit Judge Sharon Prost's new administrative order removes the expiration date from a March order limiting access to the courthouse and calling for hearings to be held over the phone. She said the move was made "in the interest of providing greater predictability" to attorneys, given complications rising from the court's national jurisdiction.
"Counsel appearing in cases before this court are currently subject to various approaches to, and timeframes for, community recovery and reopening, which may impact their ability to travel for argument," Judge Prost wrote.
The Federal Circuit had been deciding each month whether oral arguments could be held in person. Arguments were held over the phone in April for the first time ever and they were virtual again in May. The court had announced last week that June arguments would be virtual as well.
Attorneys who argued during the first set of phone hearings had said the process was technically smooth, even if it couldn't fully replicate the experience of being in a courtroom with the judges deciding their clients' fates.
The clerk's office has been preparing arguing attorneys with an orientation call about a week before the hearing date. The office has also added a second line that allows the public, clients and colleagues to listen on the hearings, and it has continued to upload audio recordings onto its website.
The Federal Circuit has canceled much of the oral arguments that were scheduled during these months and has instead been deciding cases on the briefs. But attorneys whose cases were decided on the briefs have, with one exception, received fleshed-out opinions from the court, rather than the court's oft-used Rule 36 judgments.
The pandemic has caused changes across the board in how court proceedings are being handled, with bodies ranging from the tech-friendly Patent Trial and Appeal Board to the far more traditional U.S. Supreme Court going virtual.
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office had said in March that it wouldn't have in-person hearings — whether at the PTAB, Trademark Trial and Appeal Board, with patent examiners or otherwise — until further notice.
In district courts, experiences have ranged from holding patent trials over Zoom in Virginia to preparing for in-person patent trials in the Western District of Texas as early as June 29 — despite a court order not allowing them until July. The Eastern District of Texas is also planning for in-person trials in June.
--Editing by Gemma Horowitz.
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