Patent Law Research Guide

• Constitutional: The U.S. Constitution (Art. 1, sec. 8, cl. 8) grants Congress the power "to promote the progress of science and the useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries."
   
• Statutory: Patent laws are contained in Title 35 of the United States Code. For more information on researching U.S. statutory law, see Georgetown Law Library's Statutes Research Guide or the Statutory Research Tutorial. 
   
• Regulatory: Regulations on patent law are promulgated by United States Patent and Trademark Office (which also administers the patent law system) and codified in Title 37 of the Code of Federal Regulations.
  
  Additional information on USPTO and other patent-related agencies is available below under Administrative Materials. For more on administrative legal research, generally, refer to our Administrative Law Research Guide or Administrative Law Tutorial.
   
• Case Law: Patent law is unique in that there is a single federal court of appeals that has appellate jurisdiction over patent cases, the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (referred to as simply "the Federal Circuit").  Whereas other federal appellate courts have geographically-based jurisdiction, the Federal Circuit has jurisdiction based on subject matter, including exclusive appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal cases involving patents and trademarks.
  
  Additional information on case law research for patents is below under Cases. For information on researching case law, see Georgetown Law Library's Case Law Research Guide or the Case Law Research Tutorial.

Lexis and Westlaw both collect cases by subject matter; in either, navigate first to the Practice Area tab, then select Patent (Lexis) or Intellectual Property (Westlaw), and then scroll to Cases. 

The following is a non-comprehensive list of a few additional, patent-specific sources for case law. 

For information on researching case law, see Georgetown Law Library's Case Law Research Guide or the Case Law Research Tutorial.

Agency Adjudicative Bodies & Decisions

Collections of Administrative Materials

In addition to the above, a variety of patent-related administrative materials are available in collections on Lexis, Westlaw, and Bloomberg Law at the following locations:

For more on administrative legal research, generally, refer to our Administrative Law Research Guide or Administrative Law Tutorial.