Haynes Boone Partner Joseph Matal talked with Reuters about the announced retirement of U.S. Circuit Judge Kathleen O'Malley and the impact of her work in the Federal Circuit.
Below is an excerpt:
U.S. Circuit Judge Kathleen O'Malley of the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit will retire next March, according to a list of future judicial vacancies on the U.S. Courts website.
O'Malley, 64, was appointed to the patent-heavy court by then-President Barack Obama in 2010 and was previously a judge at the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio after being appointed by then-President Bill Clinton in 1994.
O'Malley is the only active Federal Circuit judge with experience as a district court judge, which showed in her rulings, said Joe Matal, an IP partner at Haynes Boone who has also served as the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's Acting Director and Acting Solicitor.
"The Federal Circuit is so heavily dominated by patent cases and patent lawyers, -- it gets a little inbred," Matal said. "It's good to have a deep knowledge of those other legal principles, and it helps keep patent law aligned to have people on the court who are familiar with the breadth of the law."
Matal also cited an O'Malley opinion from earlier this month in a case involving Sony that laid out the requirements to plead a patent infringement case as "one of those opinions that's going to be, in the future, one of the go-to opinions" on the subject.
The U.S. Courts website says O'Malley will retire on March 11, 2022.
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