Federal Circuit Rule 32: Form of Briefs, Appendices, and Other Papers

(a) Cover.

(1) Official Caption.

Whenever a document is filed with a cover, that cover must contain the official caption provided by the clerk of court, unless noted otherwise in these rules. See Federal Circuit Rule 12(b) and Federal Circuit Rule 15(b)(4). This caption satisfies the requirement under Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 32(a)(2)(C).

(2) Prohibitions.

“Nonconfidential” or “public” may not appear on the cover or first page of any filing unless there is a corresponding confidential version.

(3) Appeals Involving Patents.

When the language of a patent or patent application is at issue in the appeal, each party’s principal brief must include the language of one or more exemplary patent claims illustrative of the issue(s) on the inside of the front cover (or immediately following the front cover if the language requires more space).

The text of any reproduced claim may be single-spaced.

(b) Type-Volume Limitations.

(1) Brief Word or Line Limitation.

A principal brief may exceed thirty (30) pages in length if it contains no more than 14,000 words, or 1,300 lines of text if using a monospaced typeface. A reply brief may exceed fifteen (15) pages in length if it contains no more than 7,000 words, or 650 lines of text if using a monospaced typeface.

(2) Exclusions.

In addition to the items listed in Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 32(f) that are not counted in the type-volume limitations of these rules, the following items do not count toward those limitations:

(A) certificate of interest;

(B) statement of related cases;

(C) any addendum;

(D) any requirements under Federal Circuit Rule 25.1(e);

(E) the cover page, the inside of the front cover, including the one or more exemplary patent claims illustrative of the issue(s), or text required to appear on the first page of a filing in lieu of a cover page; and

(F) statement of counsel for a petition for hearing or rehearing en banc under Federal Circuit Rule 40(c).

(3) Certificate of Compliance for Briefs.

Each brief exceeding the page limitation under Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 32(a)(7)(A) or Federal Circuit Rule 28.1(a) must include a certificate of compliance with the type-volume limitation that adheres to the requirements in Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 32(g). It is the responsibility of the filing party to ensure that the certificate of compliance is accurate.

(c) Informal Brief.

An informal principal brief should be typewritten, but block printing or, as a last resort, legible handwriting is permitted. An informal principal brief must not exceed thirty (30) pages of typewritten double-spaced text or its equivalent. An informal reply brief must not exceed fifteen (15) pages of typewritten double-spaced text or its equivalent.

If prepared on the court’s form, the form pages count against the total page limitation. The paper informal briefs may be secured by a single staple in the left-hand corner in lieu of any other form of binding required by Federal Circuit Rule 32(h).

(d) Form of Appendix or Addendum.

The court encourages the double-sided printing of the pages of the appendix, an appendix combined with a brief, and an addendum.

(e) Pagination.

Submissions to the court over two (2) pages must include page numbers. The page number must be centered at the bottom of the page and need not be included on a cover page.

(f) Page Proof.

Page proof copies of documents must not be filed with the court.

(g) Signature Authority; Multiple Signatures.

(1) Appearance Prerequisites.

After a case is docketed, documents filed in that case on behalf of a represented party can only be signed by an attorney who has filed an entry of appearance for that party.

(2) Signature Authority.

Any person having actual authority may sign a document on behalf of counsel or an unrepresented party who is unavailable to sign or incapable of signing, provided the filing also includes as an attachment an affidavit of authority or an unsworn declaration of authority under penalty of perjury pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1746.

(3) Documents Requiring Multiple Signatures.

Any document requiring the signature of more than one party or individual must include the signature of the filer and account for all other signatures in either one or a combination of the following fashions:

(A) The document may contain the handwritten signatures of the other parties or individuals.

(B) The document may contain the electronic signatures of the other parties or individuals with their consent and must so state that consent.

(C) The document may identify the other parties or individuals required to sign, and those parties or individuals must file a notice endorsing the signature within three (3) business days after filing.

(h) Binding.

Paper copies of briefs and appendices must be securely bound along the left margin to ensure that the bound copies will not loosen or fall apart and that the brief will lie reasonably flat when open.

(i) Extraneous Markings.

Parties must not include any highlighting or extraneous markings within either the briefs or the appendix beyond confidentiality notations required by these rules or markings that originally appeared on appendix materials in the record below.

Practice Notes to Rule 32

Preferred Cover Content.

In addition to the requirements of Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 32(a)(2)(D), the court encourages inclusion on the cover of the name of the judge, when applicable, from whose judgment appeal is taken.

Print Size of Briefs.

Parties should avoid photo-reproduction that reduces the print size of the original smaller than the size required by Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 32.

Footnotes.

The typeface requirements of Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 32(a)(5) apply to all text in the brief, including footnotes.

Copies of Patent Documents.

Oversize patent documents reproduced in a brief or appendix should be photo-reduced to 8 1/2 by 11 inches if readability can be maintained; otherwise, they should be folded and bound so they do not protrude from the covers of the brief or appendix.

Certificate of Compliance.

Using Federal Circuit Form 19 satisfies the requirements for a certificate of compliance with type-volume limitations under Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 32(g)(1) and Federal Circuit Rule 32(b)(3). Parties are reminded that some software programs do not automatically include footnotes. When certain text is marked for word count or line count purposes, a party may need to separately mark text in footnotes and include those words or lines in the certified count.

Filings in Companion Cases.

Except when otherwise ordered, all filings in companion cases must be made in each individual case with the individual case numbers and case captions included on each respective case-specific filing. Unless otherwise directed, required paper copies must be submitted in each respective case.