Federal Circuit’s Filing Requirements: A Trap for Even the Experts
Patent – Patently-O 2025-01-16
Summary:
By Dennis Crouch
The Federal Circuit has earned a reputation as the most technically demanding appellate court in the federal system when it comes to procedural compliance. I regularly review federal court dockets and continue to be astounded by the prevalence of filing errors and subsequent correction requirements in Federal Circuit appeals - even among the nation's most sophisticated appellate practitioners. The situation has become so routine that finding a Federal Circuit appeal without at least one notice of non-compliance is more noteworthy than finding one with multiple filing corrections. The court's exacting standards create a procedural gauntlet that seems designed to catch all but the most careful attorneys willing to check in with the clerks office before each filing. Although I have not done a comprehensive study, my experience is that the Federal Circuit clerk's office rejects filings as non-compliant much much more often than any other Circuit Court of Appeal.
In 2023 the Federal Circuit Clerk's Office issued a memo detailing "Common Filing Errors" - apparently recognizing the scope of the problem and attempting to push the responsibility onto the filers. However, the practitioners continue to demonstrate the exact same errors as those cited in the memo.