MEDICAL DEVICES The justices also agreed to consider which side bears the burden of proof in some patent disputes. The case, Medtronic Inc. v. Boston Scientific Corp., No. 12-1128, concerns devices made by Medtronic that deliver electrical jolts to the heart when it fails to pump normally.

Medtronic licensed patents owned by Mirowski Family Ventures concerning various aspects of such “cardiac resynchronization therapy.” The license agreement also addressed new products developed by Medtronic, requiring it to pay royalties on ones said to be infringing the patents or to go to court for a “declaration of noninfringement.”

In 2007, the patent owner asserted various infringements, and Medtronic asked the courts to decide the matter. The question for the justices is whether a federal appeals court in Washington was right last year when it put the burden on Medtronic to prove it had not infringed the patents. In ordinary cases, the patent holder must prove infringement.

ADMINISTRATIVE LAW The administrative law case, City of Arlington v. Federal Communications Commission, No. 11-1545, concerned a 1996 federal law that requires state and local authorities to act “within a reasonable period of time” after receiving applications for building or altering wireless facilities. In response to a request from a trade association for the wireless industry, the commission made two decisions.

First, it found that it had jurisdiction to define what a reasonable time was. Second, it said that a deadline of 90 or 150 days was generally appropriate, depending on the circumstances.

Two Texas cities, Arlington and San Antonio, said Congress had not authorized the commission to act in the first place, pointing to a part of the law that said it was not meant to limit the power of state and local governments.

The general rules in this area were set out by the Supreme Court in 1984 in Chevron v. Natural Resources Defense Council, which said that judges should defer to an administrative agency’s views when Congress itself had not spoken clearly.