Supreme Court Report

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Willowood, LLC, et al. v. Syngenta Crop Protection, LLC

Paid petition · United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, No. 2018-1614, 2018-2044 · judgment December 18, 2019

Certiorari denied · October 5, 2020
Pre-decision estimate: 4% cert probability

Before the decision, roughly the 4.1% base rate. The model weighted this up for a circuit split argued in the petition, a Federal Circuit decision below, and a petition filed soon after the judgment below, and down for a business respondent.

Questions presented

This Petition presents two questions for review:

  1. Whether liability for patent infringement under 35 U.S.C. §271(g) requires that all steps of a patented process must be practiced by, or at least attributable to, a single entity, a requirement that this Court previously recognized is a prerequisite for infringement under 35 U.S.C. §§271(a) and (b) in Limelight Networks, Inc. v. Akamai Technologies, Inc., 572 U.S. 915 (2014).

  2. Whether, by requiring EPA to grant expedited review and approval of labels for generic pesticides that are “identical or substantially similar” to the previously approved labels for the same product, Congress intended to preclude claims of copyright infringement with respect to generic pesticide labels.

Counsel of record

For petitioner
Steven E. Tiller
Whitefield, Taylor & Preston

For respondent
Russell E. Levine
Kirkland & Ellis LLP

Case

Conference history
Distributed for 2 conferences

Proceedings

  1. Oct 05 2020
    Petition DENIED.
  2. Jul 15 2020
    DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 9/29/2020.
  3. Jul 07 2020
    Reply of petitioners Willowood, LLC, et al. filed.
  4. Jun 25 2020
    Brief of respondent Syngenta Crop Protection, LLC in opposition filed.
  5. May 18 2020
    Motion to extend the time to file a response is granted and the time is extended to and including June 25, 2020.
  6. May 15 2020
    Motion to extend the time to file a response from May 26, 2020 to June 25, 2020, submitted to The Clerk.
  7. Apr 23 2020
    Response Requested. (Due May 26, 2020)
  8. Apr 15 2020
    DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 5/1/2020.
  9. Apr 10 2020
    Waiver of right of respondent Syngenta Crop Protection, LLC to respond filed.
  10. Mar 17 2020
    Petition for a writ of certiorari filed. (Response due April 20, 2020)