Contract appeal won't get to Federal Circuit where infringement is not an issue

"No infringement dispute, no appellate jurisdiction in hypothetical breach of contract claim" is the title of a note by Finnegan attorneys John J. Thuermer and Bart A. Gerstenblith which will soon be published in the Journal of Intellectual Property Law & Practice. It eplains the ruling in Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings v Metabolite Laboratories, Inc., 599 F.3d 1277 (Fed. Cir. 2010) that an issue of patent law must be disputed in a suit based on state contract law in order for the Federal Circuit to have appellate jurisdiction.

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