The United States Court of Customs and Patent Appeals (CCPA) was a

United States federal court The federal judiciary of the United States is one of the three branches of the federal government of the United States organized under the United States Constitution and laws of the federal government. The U.S. federal judiciary consists primar ...

which existed from 1909 to 1982 and had

jurisdiction Jurisdiction (from Latin 'law' + 'declaration') is the legal term for the legal authority granted to a legal entity to enact justice. In federations like the United States, areas of jurisdiction apply to local, state, and federal levels. J ...

over certain types of civil disputes.

History

The CCPA began as the United States Court of Customs Appeals, created by the

Payne–Aldrich Tariff Act The Payne–Aldrich Tariff Act of 1909 (ch. 6, 36 Stat. 11), named for Representative Sereno E. Payne (R– NY) and Senator Nelson W. Aldrich (R– RI), began in the United States House of Representatives as a bill raising certain tariffs on goo ...

of August 5, 1909, and it started its work the following year, on April 22, 1910. Five judges for the new court were appointed by

President Taft William Howard Taft (September 15, 1857March 8, 1930) was the 27th president of the United States (1909–1913) and the tenth chief justice of the United States (1921–1930), the only person to have held both offices. Taft was elected pr ...

Robert Morris Montgomery Robert Morris Montgomery (May 12, 1849 – June 27, 1920) was a justice of the Michigan Supreme Court and a Presiding Judge of the United States Court of Customs Appeals. Education and career Born on May 12, 1849, in Eaton Rapids, Michigan, Mon ...

, William H. Hunt,

James Francis Smith James Francis Smith (January 28, 1859 – June 29, 1928) was an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the Philippines, Governor-General of the Philippines and an associate judge of the United States Court of Customs Appeals. Education and ...

, Orion M. Barber and

Marion De Vries Marion De Vries (August 15, 1865 – September 11, 1939) was a United States representative from California, a Member and President of the Board of General Appraisers and an Associate Judge and later Presiding Judge of the United States Court of ...

. The jurisdiction was originally appeals from decisions of the Board of General Appraisers, and no further appellate review was permitted. This changed in 1914, when writ of certiorari by the

United States Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...

was allowed. The

Patent Act of 1922 The Patent Act of 1922 began circulating general information about how to acquire a patent to the general public as a means of spurring private invention initiatives. The law also enlarged the jurisdiction of the Court of Customs and Patent App ...

enlarged the jurisdiction of the court to include appeals on questions of law from Tariff Commission findings in proceedings relating to unfair practices in the import trade. In 1929 the court's name was changed to the United States Court of Customs and Patent Appeals by an enactment that conferred upon it appeals from the

United States Patent Office The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is an agency in the U.S. Department of Commerce that serves as the national patent office and trademark registration authority for the United States. The USPTO's headquarters are in Alex ...

. These appeals included ''

ex parte In law, ''ex parte'' () is a Latin term meaning literally "from/out of the party/faction of" (name of party/faction, often omitted), thus signifying "on behalf of (name)". An ''ex parte'' decision is one decided by a judge without requiring all ...

'' patent cases, appeals from

interference proceeding An interference proceeding, also known as a priority contest, is an inter partes proceeding to determine the priority issues of multiple patent applications. It is a proceeding unique to the patent law of the United States. Unlike in most other cou ...

s, and

trademark A trademark (also written trade mark or trade-mark) is a type of intellectual property consisting of a recognizable sign, design, or expression that identifies products or services from a particular source and distinguishes them from othe ...

cases, appeals which theretofore had been heard in

United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit The United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (in case citations, D.C. Cir.) is one of the thirteen United States Courts of Appeals. It has the smallest geographical jurisdiction of any of the U.S. federal appellate co ...

. In the 1929 case ''Ex Parte Bakelite Corporation'', the Supreme Court held that the CCPA was a court formed under Article I of the Constitution. This left the judges unable to sit

by designation A visiting judge is a judge appointed to hear a case as a member of a court to which he or she does not ordinarily belong. In United States federal courts, this is referred to as an assignment "by designation" of the Chief Justice of the Unit ...

on regular federal courts, and in an ambiguous situation regarding judicial retirement. This situation was not addressed by

Congress A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of ...

until August 25, 1958, when a law was passed deeming the CCPA an Article III court. This law was subsequently upheld by the Supreme Court, which overruled the ''Bakelite'' case. In 1930 the CCPA moved into the Internal Revenue Service Building and remained there until 1967. The CCPA moved into the National Courts Building (now the

Howard T. Markey National Courts Building The Howard T. Markey National Courts Building (formerly the National Courts Building) is a courthouse in Washington, D.C., which houses the United States Court of Federal Claims and the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. It ...

), which it shared with the United States Court of Claims. In 1982 the CCPA was abolished by the

Federal Courts Improvement Act The Federal Courts Improvement Act, 96 Stat. 25., was a law enacted by the United States on April 2, 1982 which established the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit and the United States Claims Court (later changed to the United S ...

, and its jurisdiction, docket, and judges were transferred to the

United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit The United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (in case citations, Fed. Cir. or C.A.F.C.) is a United States court of appeals that has special appellate jurisdiction over certain types of specialized cases in the U.S. federal court ...

Judges

A total of 25 judges were appointed to the CCPA over the life of the court:

Succession of seats

Bibliography

''A brief history of the United States Court of Customs and Patent Appeals'' / by Giles S. Rich. Washington, D.C. : Published by authorization of Committee on the Bicentennial of Independence and the Constitution of the Judicial Conference of the United States : U.S. G.P.O., 1980.

References

External links

History of the court
from the Federal Judicial Center
Biographies of the judges
from the Federal Judicial Center {{DEFAULTSORT:Customs and Patents Appeals

Defunct United States courts Defunct (no longer in use or active) may refer to: * ''Defunct'' (video game), 2014 * Zombie process or defunct process, in Unix-like operating systems See also * * :Former entities * End-of-life product An end-of-life product (EOL produ ...

United States patent law Article I tribunals United States trade law 1909 establishments in the United States 1982 disestablishments in the United States Courts and tribunals established in 1909 Courts and tribunals disestablished in 1982