Judge Diane Wood, who in October became chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in Chicago, proposed in a recent speech that the United States abolish the Federal Circuit’s exclusive jurisdiction in patent cases.
The judge, who President Barack Obama reportedly considered as a possible nominee for the U.S. Supreme Court, acknowledged that she has some unconventional thoughts about how the country has handled patent appeals for more than 30 years. But she argued that the rationale for creating the Federal Circuit in 1982—to encourage greater uniformity in the administration of patent law, better quality in rulings made by specialist judges, and more efficiency in the handling of complex cases—is no longer justified.

In her speech at the Chicago-Kent College of Law’s annual Supreme Court IP Review conference, Wood noted that she does not advocate that the Federal Circuit be abolished outright, but rather that the Federal Circuit and the regional circuits share the patent caseload. She included allusions to songs by the Dixie Chicks, Robin Thicke, and Burt Bacharach, and argued that competition and conflict among circuits would be beneficial and would likely give rise to a consensus. Staff reporter Lisa Shuchman talked with Wood about her speech. Edited excerpts of their conversation follow.

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