So far, there are zero patent cases (or other IP cases) on the Supreme Court's docket this Term. But tomorrow is the first conference since the Court's summer break, also known as the "Long Conference," at which they will consider twelve petitions in Federal Circuit patent cases. Only one of the twelve involves patentable subject matter, and I don't think the chances of the Court taking it are high. What other issues have been teed up?The only one of the twelve to make SCOTUSblog's Petitions We're Watching page is W.L. Gore v. Bard, but I'm not sure why they're watching. The longstanding dispute over the Gore-Tex patent has now turned to an effort to overturn the longstanding rule that patent licenses may be either express or implied, but the arguments don't seem particularly compelling.Perhaps somewhat more worth watching is Life Technologies v. Promega, which involves extraterritorial application of U.S. patent laws in a case…
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