Kara Farnandez Stoll

Kara Farnandez Stoll
Stoll in 2015
Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit
Assumed office
July 8, 2015
Appointed byBarack Obama
Preceded byRandall Ray Rader
Personal details
Born
Kara Ann Farnandez

November 1968 (age 55)
Wilmington, Delaware
EducationMichigan State University (BSEE)
Georgetown University (JD)

Kara Ann Farnandez Stoll (born November 1968) is a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.

Biography[edit]

Early life and education[edit]

Stoll received a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering degree, in 1991, from Michigan State University. She worked as a patent examiner at the United States Patent and Trademark Office from 1991 to 1997. She received a Juris Doctor in 1997, from Georgetown University Law Center. From 1997 to 1998, she served as a law clerk to Judge Alvin Anthony Schall of the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.[1]

Legal career[edit]

From 1998 to 2015, she worked at the law firm of Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett & Dunner and was a partner at that firm. Her practice focused on patent litigation, primarily in the consumer electronics, computers, software and medical device industries. She represented clients at both the trial and appellate levels and served as lead counsel on a number of cases before the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. Among her prominent cases, she represented Akamai in en banc rehearing on issues of divided infringement in Akamai Technologies, Inc. v. Limelight Networks, Inc. (Fed. Cir.) and she successfully represented i4i in the largest ($290 million) patent verdict sustained on appeal in i4i Ltd. v. Microsoft (Fed. Cir.). In 2013, she was recognized as a Washington, D.C. "Super Lawyer" in Intellectual Property Litigation by the Super Lawyers Magazine.[2]

She served as an adjunct professor at Howard University School of Law, from 2004 to 2008, and has served as a Distinguished Adjunct Professor at George Mason University Law School, from 2008 to 2015. From 2013 to 2015, she served as co-chair of the Rules Committee of the Federal Circuit Bar Association and served as Vice Chair of that committee, from 2012 to 2013.[1]

Federal Circuit service[edit]

On November 12, 2014, President Barack Obama nominated Stoll to serve as a United States Circuit Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, to the seat vacated by Judge Randall Ray Rader, who retired on June 30, 2014.[3]

On December 16, 2014, her nomination was returned to the President due to the sine die adjournment of the Senate. On January 7, 2015, President Obama renominated her to the same position.[4] She received a hearing on her nomination on March 11, 2015.[5] On April 23, 2015, her nomination was reported out of committee by a voice vote.[6] On July 7, 2015, the Senate confirmed her by a 95–0 vote.[7] She received her judicial commission on July 8, 2015.[8] She took the oath of office on July 17, 2015.[9]

Notable opinions[edit]

Her opinion in Advanced Steel Recovery v. X-Body Equipment, 808 F.3d 1313 (2015) is highly cited for elaborating on the doctrine of equivalents, to include requiring the infringing patented product to "perform in substantially the same way as the claimed invention."[10]

She also wrote the Federal Circuit's opinion in the prominent case Secure Web Conference v. Microsoft, No. 2015-1321, 2016 WL 626492, in which patent infringement claims against Microsoft's Skype were dismissed.[11]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b "President Obama Nominates Two to Serve on the United States Courts of Appeals". whitehouse.gov. 12 November 2014 – via National Archives.
  2. ^ "Kara Farnandez Stoll | Attorneys | Finnegan". 2015-04-25. Archived from the original on April 25, 2015. Retrieved 2016-02-22.
  3. ^ "Presidential Nominations Sent to the Senate". whitehouse.gov. 12 November 2014 – via National Archives.
  4. ^ "Presidential Nominations Sent to the Senate". whitehouse.gov. 7 January 2015 – via National Archives.
  5. ^ "United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary". 11 March 2015.
  6. ^ "Results of Executive Business Meeting – April 23, 2015" (PDF).
  7. ^ "On the Nomination (Confirmation Kara Farnandez Stoll, of Virginia, to be U.S. Circuit Judge for the Federal Circuit)".
  8. ^ "Stoll, Kara Farnandez – Federal Judicial Center". www.fjc.gov.
  9. ^ "KARA FARNANDEZ STOLL, CIRCUIT JUDGE – US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit".
  10. ^ "ADVANCED STEEL RECOVERY, LLC v. X-BODY EQUIPMENT, INC. [OPINION] | US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit". www.cafc.uscourts.gov. Retrieved 2016-02-23.
  11. ^ "Microsoft Video Patent Win Based On Errors, Fed. Circ. Told – Law360". www.law360.com. Retrieved 2016-02-23.

Sources[edit]

Legal offices
Preceded by Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit
2015–present
Incumbent