Without Precedent

The Federal Circuit issued a novella last week, in the form of Lexmark Int’l, Inc. v. Impression Prods., Inc. The question at issue is straightforward:

“We decided to hear this case en banc to consider whether two decisions of this court concerning the uncodified doctrine of patent exhaustion—one decision from 1992, the other from 2001—remain sound in light of later decisions of the Supreme Court. Today we reaffirm the principles of our earlier decisions.”

Notwithstanding the fact that it was reaffirming decades–old law, it took the Federal Circuit approximately 100 pages to painstakingly reassure readers (or perhaps itself) that it was not simply carving out a special doctrine for patent law that flew in the face of Supreme Court precedent. Not all were convinced: