Research regarding patent cases falls into two main categories: administrative proceedings and judicial proceedings.
The USPTO has exclusive jurisdiction over whether a U.S. patent is granted. The USPTO Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) conducts trials (including inter partes, post-grant, and covered business method patent reviews and derivation proceedings), hears appeals from adverse examiner decisions in patent applications and reexamination proceedings, and renders decisions in interferences.
The PTAB publishes certain precedential and informative decisions on its website, and you can search the PTAB docket through the Patent Trial and Appeal Case Tracking System (P-TACTS). PTAB decisions can also be found in subscription databases like Westlaw and Nexis Uni.
Cases of patent infringement are within the exclusive jurisdiction of the federal court system. While patent cases are tried in local federal district courts, these cases are unique in that they can only be appealed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit and the United States Supreme Court. These cases are published in the standard federal reporters as well as in United States Patents Quarterly (U.S.P.Q.) which covers intellectual property cases from 1929 to present from the Supreme Court, appeals courts, district courts, and even some administrative proceedings. Patents Quarterly is available in print and online through the Bloomberg Law subscription database. You can also research patent case law through the Westlaw and Nexis Uni subscription databases.
Below, please find online resources, both governmental and external, regarding patent cases.
The following titles link to fuller bibliographic information in the Library of Congress Online Catalog. Links to additional online content are included when available.
Decisions of the Commissioner of Patents and of the United States Courts in Patent and Trademark and Copyright Cases
