Sources and citation

Every legal proposition on this site traces to a primary authority — a section of the United States Code, a Code of Federal Regulations provision, a Federal Rule, or a decision of the Supreme Court, the Federal Circuit, a regional circuit, or a federal district court. This page describes the sources used and the citation conventions readers will see across the site.

Primary sources

Statutes

Patent Court cites the United States Code in its operative form. The principal statutory source is Title 35 of the U.S. Code, the Patent Act, which is mapped section by section in the Patent Act statutory framework. Venue is governed by 28 U.S.C. § 1400(b) and § 1404(a). The International Trade Commission's authority sits in 19 U.S.C. § 1337. The America Invents Act of 2011 amended Title 35 in important respects, and where the AIA changed a rule, the page notes the effective date (March 16, 2013, for most provisions) and distinguishes pre-AIA and post-AIA law.

Rules

Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure are cited by number. The Patent and Trademark Office's procedural regulations sit at 37 C.F.R. Part 42 (PTAB AIA trials), 37 C.F.R. § 1.56 (duty of candor), and elsewhere in 37 C.F.R. Local patent rules — Eastern District of Texas, Northern District of California, District of Delaware, Western District of Texas — are cited by their local rule numbers. The PTAB's Trial Practice Guide is cited by its issue date because the document is revised periodically.

Decisions

Supreme Court decisions are cited to the United States Reports (e.g., Alice Corp. v. CLS Bank Int'l, 573 U.S. 208 (2014)). Federal Circuit decisions are cited to the Federal Reporter, second or third series (e.g., Phillips v. AWH Corp., 415 F.3d 1303 (Fed. Cir. 2005) (en banc)). District court decisions are cited to the Federal Supplement when reported (e.g., Georgia-Pacific Corp. v. United States Plywood Corp., 318 F. Supp. 1116 (S.D.N.Y. 1970)). En banc decisions and the authoring judge are flagged where they matter to weight.

Citation conventions

Citations follow the Bluebook in form: italicized case names, official reporter, court abbreviation in parentheses, year, and pin cite where useful. Where a pin cite is uncertain, the case is cited generally rather than to a guessed page. Where a doctrine has been altered by a later decision, both decisions are cited and the relationship is stated.

Holdings are described in past tense. Current law is described in present tense. Dicta is identified as such where it matters. Dissents and concurrences are cited only when subsequent doctrine has elevated their reasoning, or when they explain a coalition that may unwind.

What is excluded

Patent Court avoids unsupported claims about pending litigation, predictions about how a case will be resolved, and characterizations of judges' personal views. Where the law is genuinely unsettled — for example, the line between abstract ideas and patent-eligible software claims — the page says so rather than choosing a side. Secondary sources (treatises, law review articles, news coverage) inform the choice of what to cover but are not themselves cited as authority.

How to verify

Public, free access to the underlying authorities is available through the Government Publishing Office (govinfo.gov) for the U.S. Code and the C.F.R., the Supreme Court's official site for Supreme Court opinions, and the Federal Circuit's CAFC opinions site for Federal Circuit opinions. PACER provides the underlying district court dockets. The PTAB's PTAB E2E system holds AIA-trial papers. None of these external systems are mirrored here; readers should always verify against the official source before relying on any point.

Versioning

Every page carries a "Last reviewed" stamp at the bottom giving the year of the most recent material review. The changelog records substantive doctrinal updates as they are incorporated.