The jurisdiction of CAFC is generally stipulated by section 1295 of title 28 of the United States Code. CAFC accepts appeals from all U.S. federal district courts and some administrative agencies, as well as appeals based on some statutory provisions. CAFC has exclusive jurisdiction over appeals from:

Article 1 A court established in accordance with Article 1 of the Constitution of the United States.

United States Federal Claims Court

United States Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims

American Trademark Review and Adjudication Board

Patent Complaints and Conflicts Committee of the United States Patent and Trademark Office

Contract Appeal Board (Government Contract Affairs)

American merit system protection Committee

United States International Trade Commission

Article 3 A court established in accordance with Article 3 of the Constitution of the United States

American International Trade Court

The U.S. Federal District Court is concerned with the following matters:

Patents, including appeals arising from lawsuits filed against the Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office under 35 U.S.C Section 145;

LitterTucker Act, 28 U.S.C. 1346

1970 Section 2 of the Economic Stability Act11

Section 5 of Emergency Oil Distribution Act 1973

Section 506 (c) of Natural Gas Policy Act 1978

Article 523 of the Energy Policy and Protection Law

Generally speaking, CAFC will accept all appeals from any U.S. federal district court as long as the original lawsuit contains claims based on patent law. However, according to the judgment of the Supreme Court of the United States, if the patent claim is only filed by the defendant as a counterclaim, it does not have to be accepted by CAFC. However, although other appeal courts can also accept patent counterclaims in theory, in practice, this situation does not happen often.

A remarkable feature of CAFC is that its judgments, especially those involving patent cases, have become binding precedents in the United States. This is different from other 12 federal appeals courts, whose decisions only become binding precedents in their geographical areas. CAFC's decision can only be overturned by the decision of the Supreme Court of the United States or the relevant amendments to the statute law. Since the decision to review CAFC depends on the discretion of the Supreme Court of the United States, in fact, in most cases, CAFC's decision is final, especially because CAFC has exclusive jurisdiction over related matters, and there is no so-called "circuit division" (that is, the appeal courts in different circuit areas have different interpretations of federal laws).