Six years after it opened, Holland & Knight is closing its Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, office and exiting the Middle East. “In keeping with our strategic priorities, we are focusing on expansion in the Western Hemisphere,” the firm said. Hogan Lovells closed its own Abu Dhabi office in 2012, transferring lawyers to Dubai. Other firms with an office in Abu Dhabi, the second most populous city in the Emirates, include Vinson & Elkins and Allen & Overy.
JURISDICTION ASSERTED
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit for the first time on July 1 explicitly claimed appellate jurisdiction over constitutional challenges to patent laws. The balance Congress has struck between the Federal Circuit and the regional appellate courts “would be upset by placing jurisdiction over interpretations of the [America Invents Act] and an assessment of its constitutional validity in the hands of any circuit other than this one,” Judge Kathleen O’Malley wrote for a unanimous panel. The court rejected a small inventor’s challenge to the act’s “first-to-file” provision.
