The White House has announced the nomination of Richard G. Taranto to fill the final remaining open circuit judge position on the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. Mr. Taranto is an appellate and Supreme Court litigator at the small but well established DC firm of Farr & Taranto. He has participated in dozens of Federal Circuit patent appeals, including several Rambus cases, Verizon v. Cox, Lucent v. Gateway, Syngenta v. Monsanto, and others. Mr. Taranto has argued three IP cases before the U.S. Supreme Court: MGM v. Grokster (contributory copyright infringement), Warner Jenkinson v. Hilton Davis (patent law doctrine of equivalents), and Two Pesos v. Taco Cabana (trade dress infringement). Westlaw lists Mr. Taranto as counsel in over 90 reported court decisions. He has taught a variety of classes as an adjunct professor, including patent law at Harvard in 2002.
Taranto graduated from Yale Law School in 1981. He clerked for Judge Abraham Sofaer on the Southern District of New York; Judge Robert Bork on the D.C. Circuit; and Justice Sandra Day O'Connor on the Supreme Court.
