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53 Santa Clara L. Rev. 817 (2013)
Rethinking Administrative Law's Chenery Doctrine: Lessons from Patent Appeals at the Federal Circuit

handle is hein.journals/saclr53 and id is 883 raw text is: RETHINKING ADMINISTRATIVE LAW'S CHENERY DOCTRINE: LESSONS FROM PATENT APPEALS AT THE FEDERAL CIRCUIT Amy R. Motomura* TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction..................................818 I. The Chenery Doctrine .................... ......822 A. The General Principle .............. ......822 B. Subsequent Development and Divergence in the Doctrine...................... 824 1. A Framework for Analysis ..............824 2. Modes of Decisionmaking: Rulemaking or Adjudication, Formal or Informal? .................. 826 3. Types of Decisionmaking: Policy, Fact, and L aw ...................................................................826 II. The Chenery Doctrine in Appeals of Patent Denials.......831 A. Statutory Provisions for Judicial Review of PTO Decisions ..................... ..... 832 B. Standards of Review Applied in Federal Circuit Review of PTO Decisions .................. 836 C. Chenery's Declared Scope in the Federal Circuit. 838 D. The Federal Circuit's Application of the Doctrine .............................. 842 1. Inconsistency Due to Level of Generality........843 i. Layered Law and Fact in Obviousness Rejections ...................... 844 ii. Federal Circuit Recognition of Layered Law and Fact............. ........ 849 iii. Layered Law and Fact in Anticipation Rejections .................. ...... 850 2. Inconsistency Due to Identification of the Relevant Issue........... .. .......... 853 III. Toward a Better Chenery ...................... 856 * Associate, Morrison & Foerster LLP. J.D., Stanford Law School, 2012. Many thanks to Mark Lemley, Stephen Lee, and Sapna Kumar for their helpful comments. A draft of this Article received the Stanford Law School 2012 Intellectual Property Writing Award. 817

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