United States Federal Circuit Now Receiving More Appeals Regarding Intellectual Property Law

In 2011, the appeals filed to the Federal Circuit regarding intellectual property law was 45%, administrative law was 40%, and money suits against the United States was 14%. Among the appeals filed for intellectual property law, 33% was filed from the District Courts and 9% was filed from the Patent Trademark Office (PTO).

 

(Graph from http://www.cafc.uscourts.gov/thecourt/statistics)

However, in 2015, the appeals filed to the Federal Circuit regarding intellectual property law had increased to 62%, administrative law had decreased to 27%, and money suits against the United States had decreased to 10.8%. Among the appeals filed for intellectual property law, appeals from the Patent Trademark Office increased to 24% while appeals from the District Courts increased to 37%.

 

(Graph from http://www.cafc.uscourts.gov/the-court/statistics)

As shown above, the Federal Circuit is now receiving more appeals regarding intellectual property law. In addition, the Patent Trademark Office seems to overtake appeals from the District Courts.

The chart below shows the annual number of appeals filed from 1997 to January 29, 2016.

(Data source: http://www.cafc.uscourts.gov/the-court/statistics)

As shown above, the number of appeals docketed at the District Courts seems to increase slightly over the years. The number of appeals docketed at the Patent Trademark Office seems to increase dramatically since 2013.

In other words, it can be seen that appeals regarding intellectual property law has become increasingly common these days. This also indicates the increasing awareness of the importance of intellectual property rights in the United States.

 

Source of Data:

http://patentlyo.com/patent/2016/03/receiving-appeals-district.html

Keywords: United States; Intellectual Property; Appeals; 1997-2016