by Dennis Crouch
Short post today because I’m surfing in Puerto Rico on Spring Break. Speaking of breaks – Some legal deadlines bend. Others break you.
In Brown v. United States, No. 26-1179 (Fed. Cir. Mar. 23, 2026), the Federal Circuit dismissed an appeal because the notice of appeal arrived outside the 60-day statutory window. The court reaffirmed that this deadline is mandatory and jurisdictional, meaning no court has authority to forgive a late filing. Marandola v. United States, 518 F.3d 913 (Fed. Cir. 2008). Mr. Brown was apparently incarcerated when he filed his notice, but he did not submit any declaration establishing timely deposit in the prison mail system under Fed. R. App. P. 4(c). The “mailbox rule” can help, but only with proper certification.
As a reminder, the deadline for filing a notice of appeal from a district court judgment is just 30 days under 28 U.S.C. § 2107(a), while parties appealing a PTAB final written decision in an IPR have 63 days under 37 C.F.R. § 90.3(a)(1).