In Search of Institutional Identity: The Federal Circuit Comes of Age

Abstract

This article continues my examination of the experiment in specialization that was undertaken when the Federal Circuit was established a quarter of a century ago. There is now a sharp division in opinion regarding the court's performance among the bar, the legal academy, economists, and the Supreme Court. The first part of the paper suggests that opinions diverge because these constituencies disagree on the appropriate criteria for evaluating the court's output. The piece ends with a discussion of the proposals that have been made for improving appellate decision making in patent cases and, more generally, for improving the use of specialized courts.

Keywords: patents, specialized adjudication, Federal Circuit

JEL Classification: O31, O34, K23