American Axle – Still Waiting

by Dennis Crouch

No decision today in the pending subject matter eligibility case of American Axle v. Neapco. Friday was the last scheduled conference for 2021-2022. However, the Court traditionally holds one additional clean-up conference once it issues all of its merits decisions.  If the court follows its past tradition, it will either grant or deny the petition at that final conference.  The court also took no action on the follow-on eligibility case of Spireon v. Procon. Certiorari was denied in both Apple v. Qualcomm (standing to appeal IPR) and EPA II (collateral shareholder challenge of patent decision).

What does this mean? Conventional wisdom is that a hold-over increases the odds of certiorari.  The up/down decision will likely be pushed back to early July.