Dennis Crouch over at patently-o [1] has posted on his great blog the briefs filed in a patent case soon to be heard in the Supreme Court. The Court and parties believe the issue is whether there is Article III jurisdiction over a declaratory judgment action brought against the licensor of a patent by the licensee where the licensee is still paying royalties, and so on. There were lots of amicus briefs, and I wrote one in which I argued on behalf of several law professors that Congress had simply not enacted statutes that granted this jurisdiction — the Article III issue isn’t to be reached. He posted all the briefs, including my brief [2] which focused principally on statutory interpretation. Others mention the statutory issue, too. I’m betting that my position wins 5 votes… Stay tuned!
David Hricik
Mercer Law School
(I’m not affiliated with the firm that owns this site)