By Dennis Crouch
Gunn v. Minton, (on petition for Writ of Certiorari at the U.S. Supreme Court)
Vernon Minton developed a set of software that he leased to the Texas Int'l Stock Exchange (TISE) more than one year before filing a provisional patent application on the invention embodied by the product. The USPTO granted Minton U.S. Patent No. 6,014,643. However, in a later lawsuit against NASDAQ, the patent was invalidated via the on-sale bar of 35 U.S.C. § 102(b) and that invalidity finding was upheld on appeal. Minton v. Nat'l Ass'n of Sec. Dealers, Inc., 336 F.3d 1373 (Fed. Cir. 2003). In that decision, the Federal Circuit confirmed that the lease constituted a sale for 102(b). In a post-judgment motion, Minton asked the district court to consider whether the use by TISE was an experimental use. However, the court refused to consider that issue because of its untimely introduction.
The present lawsuit arose when Minton then sued his patent litigation counsel (who have now joined the Fulbright & Jaworski firm). The crux of the malpractice claim is that the litigation counsel failed to timely plead the experimental use question. Minton sued in Texas state court and lost on a pretrial motion based upon the trial court's judgment that Minton had failed to present "a scintilla of proof . . . to support his claims." That no-damages judgment was affirmed by the Texas court of appeals. However, the Supreme Court of Texas took an orthogonal view and held that Texas courts lacked subject matter jurisdiction over case. In particular, the Texas Supreme Court held that Minton's malpractice claim required resolution of a substantial question of patent law and therefore fell within the exclusive "arising under" jurisdiction of the federal courts and, eventually, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. This ruling gives Minton another shot at winning the case - this time in federal district court.
The 5-3 Texas Supreme Court decision followed the lead set by the Federal Circuit in Air Measurement Tech., Inc. v. Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, L.L.P., 504 F.3d 1262 (Fed. Cir. 2007) and Immunocept, L.L.C. v. Fulbright & Jaworski, L.L.P., 504 F.3d 1281 (Fed. Cir. 2007). In those cases the Federal Circuit gave a broad interpretation to arising under jurisdiction based upon the court's congressionally mandated goal of national uniformity in the patent system. Both the Akin Gump and the Fulbright Jaworski cases were decided on the same day by the same panel and both penned by then Chief Judge Paul Michel. (Judges Lourie and Rader joined the panels). Although the Texas court did not treat the Federal Circuit decisions as binding precedent, the court chose to adopt the logic of those decisions. The dissent argued that the State of Texas has a strong interest in (and a regulatory scheme in place for) ensuring that Texas attorneys maintain a high level of quality and that federalism concerns suggest that many of these cases should be adjudged at the state court level. In a non-patent case, the Supreme Court approved of this more nuanced analysis of arising under jurisdiction in the case of Grable & Sons Metal Products, Inc. v. Darue Eng'g & Mfg., 545 U.S. 308 (2005).
The lawyer defendants have now appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court – asking that court to provide its verdict on the breadth of arising under jurisdiction for non-patent cases that require interpretation of a patent law issue. Gunn presents the following question:
Did the Federal Circuit depart from the standard this Court articulated in Grable & Sons Metal Products, Inc. v. Darue Eng'g & Mfg., 545 U.S. 308 (2005), for "arising under" jurisdiction of the federal courts under 28 U.S.C. § 1338, when it held that state law legal malpractice claims against trial lawyers for their handling of underlying patent matters come within the exclusive jurisdiction of the federal courts? Because the Federal Circuit has exclusive jurisdiction over appeals involving patents, are state courts and federal courts strictly following the Federal Circuit's mistaken standard, thereby magnifying its jurisdictional error and sweeping broad swaths of state law claims - which involve no actual patents and have no impact on actual patent rights - into the federal courts?
This may be surprising to some, but in most cases the respondent does not actually file any response to a Supreme Court petition for writ of certiorari. The Supreme Court tends to only hear important cases that are well represented on both sides. The lack of response is intended to suggest that the case should not rise to that threshold level of importance. Here, Minton declined to respond to the petition. However, in a recent order, the Supreme Court has asked for Minton's response. This judicial action suggests interest in the case, and that interest may be prompted that may be further spurred by the recent spate of decisions showing some disagreement within the Federal Circuit on the very issue. In a supplemental filing in support of its petition, Gunn argued that "[t]he Federal Circuit, which created the jurisdictional morass at issue in this case, is thus split within itself regarding whether to abandon the misguided and overly-broad jurisdictional standard it articulated in Air Measurement Tech., Inc. v. Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, L.L.P., 504 F.3d 1262 (Fed. Cir. 2007) and Immunocept, L.L.C. v. Fulbright & Jaworski, L.L.P., 504 F.3d 1281 (Fed. Cir. 2007)."
If the Supreme Court takes the case, argument will likely be scheduled for late 2012.
