US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit · Schema

FederalCircuitOpinion

An opinion, order, or judgment published by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.

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Properties

Name	Type	Description
case_number	string	Federal Circuit case number associated with this opinion.
title	string	Case title for this opinion.
opinion_type	string	Type of opinion or order published.
date_issued	string	Date the opinion was issued.
outcome	string	Outcome of the appeal in this opinion.
judges	array	Federal Circuit judges on the panel or in the en banc court.
authoring_judge	string	Judge who authored the majority opinion.
subject_matter	string	Primary subject matter area of the opinion.
pdf_url	string	URL to the full opinion PDF on cafc.uscourts.gov.
is_precedential	boolean	Whether this opinion is designated as precedential.

View JSON Schema on GitHub

JSON Schema

{
  "$schema": "https://json-schema.org/draft/2020-12/schema",
  "$id": "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/us-court-of-appeals-for-the-federal-circuit/refs/heads/main/json-schema/cafc-opinion-schema.json",
  "title": "FederalCircuitOpinion",
  "description": "An opinion, order, or judgment published by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.",
  "type": "object",
  "properties": {
    "case_number": {
      "type": "string",
      "description": "Federal Circuit case number associated with this opinion.",
      "example": "2024-2296"
    },
    "title": {
      "type": "string",
      "description": "Case title for this opinion.",
      "example": "Acme Corp. v. Widget Technology, Inc."
    },
    "opinion_type": {
      "type": "string",
      "description": "Type of opinion or order published.",
      "enum": [
        "Precedential Opinion",
        "Non-Precedential Opinion",
        "Rule 36 Judgment",
        "Precedential Order",
        "Non-Precedential Order",
        "En Banc Opinion",
        "Errata"
      ]
    },
    "date_issued": {
      "type": "string",
      "format": "date",
      "description": "Date the opinion was issued."
    },
    "outcome": {
      "type": "string",
      "description": "Outcome of the appeal in this opinion.",
      "enum": [
        "Affirmed",
        "Reversed",
        "Vacated",
        "Remanded",
        "Affirmed in Part, Reversed in Part",
        "Dismissed",
        "Vacated and Remanded"
      ]
    },
    "judges": {
      "type": "array",
      "description": "Federal Circuit judges on the panel or in the en banc court.",
      "items": {
        "type": "string"
      },
      "example": ["Chen", "Prost", "Stoll"]
    },
    "authoring_judge": {
      "type": "string",
      "description": "Judge who authored the majority opinion.",
      "example": "Chen"
    },
    "subject_matter": {
      "type": "string",
      "description": "Primary subject matter area of the opinion.",
      "enum": [
        "Patent Validity",
        "Patent Infringement",
        "Patent Claim Construction",
        "Patent Eligibility",
        "Trade Secrets",
        "International Trade",
        "Government Contracts",
        "Federal Employment",
        "Veterans Benefits",
        "Administrative Law",
        "Court of Federal Claims"
      ]
    },
    "pdf_url": {
      "type": "string",
      "format": "uri",
      "description": "URL to the full opinion PDF on cafc.uscourts.gov.",
      "example": "https://www.cafc.uscourts.gov/opinions-orders/24-2296.OPINION.3-6-2026_2657484.pdf"
    },
    "is_precedential": {
      "type": "boolean",
      "description": "Whether this opinion is designated as precedential."
    }
  },
  "required": ["case_number", "title", "opinion_type", "date_issued"]
}