Friday, July 2, 2021 On Monday, the Supreme Court denied TCL Communication’s certiorari petition, without comment, appealing the Federal Circuit’s ruling that the essentiality of a patent claim is a question for the jury rather than judges to resolve during claim construction. The denial of cert by the Supreme Court cements the Federal Circuit ruling which made proving infringement of standard essential patents easier by allowing reliance on the standard to show such infringement. Nearly one year ago, the Federal Circuit panel issued a precedential decision in Godo Kaisha IP Bridge I v. TCL Commc’n Tech. Holdings Ltd. finding that essentiality is a question of fact for the jury to decide. The panel further ruled that where it is established that (1) the accused products are standard-compliant and (2) the asserted claims cover a mandatory portion of the standard (i.e., a part of the standard that is required in all implementations of the standard), then a jury may perform its infringement analysis by comparing the patent claims to the standard.