# US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit

**Canonical:** https://apis.io/providers/us-court-of-appeals-for-the-federal-circuit/  
**Website:** https://www.cafc.uscourts.gov/  
**APIs profiled:** 3

The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit is a federal appellate court with nationwide jurisdiction over cases involving patent law, international trade, government contracts, federal employment, veterans' benefits, and other specialized areas of federal law. The court provides public access to opinions and orders online from 2004 to present, with full case records accessible via PACER for cases filed after March 1, 2012. The PACER system offers developer APIs including the Authentication API and the Case Locator (PCL) API for programmatic access to federal case data across all federal courts.

## Kin Score — 27.1 / 100 (thin)

Scored 2026-08-21 under rubric 0.12.0. Trend: flat (+0.0 from 27.1).

| Facet | Score |
|---|---|
| Discoverability | 64.8 |
| Contract Quality | 29.6 |
| Governance | 25.0 |
| Contract Governance | 25.0 |
| Operational Transparency | 7.9 |
| Developer Ergonomics | 31.0 |
| Commercial Clarity | 15.8 |
| Access Clarity | 15.8 |

Regulatory layer — **Government & Public Sector**: 20.4 (matched via tags).

## Agent readiness — 3.0 (human-only)

| Dimension | Value |
|---|---|
| Spec Presence | no |
| Agentic Access | no |
| Reversibility Documented | no |
| MCP Server | no |
| Auth Clarity | no |
| Idempotency | no |
| Error Semantics | no |
| OpenAPI Examples | no |
| Rate Limit Signal | documented |
| Event Surface Described | no |
| Agent Skills | no |
| Well Known Catalog | no |
| Consent Identity | no |
| Agent Card | no |
| Dry Run Mode | no |

## Access

Freemium — onboarding: unknown, pricing: freemium, trial: no (confidence: medium).

## APIs (3)

- **PACER - Public Access to Court Electronic Records** — Public Access to Court Electronic Records (PACER) provides online access to U.S. Federal Court case and docket information from Federal Courts including the U.S. Court of Appeal...
- **Federal Circuit Opinions and Orders** — Public access to U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit opinions, orders, and judgments. Includes precedential opinions, Rule 36 judgments, non-ministerial orders, and er...
- **Federal Circuit Case Records** — Case information and records for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. Cases filed on or after March 1, 2012, are available through PACER or at public terminals in ...

## Security (1)

- **Us Court Of Appeals For The Federal Circuit Domain Security** — TLSv1.3 · HSTS · DMARC

## Plans (1)

- **Us Court Of Appeals For The Federal Circuit Plans Pricing**

## Use cases (5)

- **Patent Case Legal Research** — Researching Federal Circuit patent law precedent using published opinions, orders, and PACER case dockets.
- **Federal Employment and Veterans Claims Research** — Finding Federal Circuit decisions on government contracts, federal employment, veterans benefits, and specialized federal jurisdiction.
- **Court Records Access via PACER** — Programmatic access to Federal Circuit case dockets, filings, and documents using the PACER Authentication API and Case Locator API.
- **Appellate Monitoring** — Monitoring active Federal Circuit cases, oral arguments, and new opinions relevant to specific technology, trade, or legal areas.
- **Legal Data Analytics** — Using PACER data to analyze trends in Federal Circuit patent, trade, and government contract decisions for legal research.

## Tags

Federal-Government, Legal, Patent Law, Federal Courts, Appellate Courts

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Profiled by [API Evangelist](https://apievangelist.com) and published on [APIs.io](https://apis.io/providers/us-court-of-appeals-for-the-federal-circuit/). Scores are computed from the provider's own public artifacts under a published rubric.