⚖ Oral Arguments, with Context

The Federal Circuit reviews Jefferson Street Holdings' patent for a protective phone case. The patent describes higher corners and lower side sections, intended to protect the screen while leaving it easier to reach. After reexamining the issued patent against earlier case designs, the Patent Office's appeal board upheld rejections of its claims. A patent claim defines the features the patent seeks to protect. Here, much turns on whether a height that continuously spans a side must stay constant, as the company contends, or can vary while remaining above zero, as the board concluded. The lawyers will also dispute whether curved edges satisfy requirements about extending perpendicular, or at right angles, to the back panel. You'll hear two different patentability tests. Anticipation asks whether one earlier reference already disclosed every claimed feature in the required arrangement. Obviousness asks whether the claimed design, as a whole, would have been obvious to someone with ordinary skill in the field. Different claims were rejected on different grounds, so winning one interpretation issue would not necessarily resolve them all. Jefferson Street will seek relief from those rejections; the Patent Office will defend the board's analysis.

In re Jefferson Street Holdings LLC (No. 25-2037) — U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, argued November 2, 2026.