INTRODUCTION – 1168
I. A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE FEDERAL CIRCUIT- 1172
A. A Specialty Court – For Patents – 1173
B. A Specialty Court – For Copyright? – 1176

II. THE FEDERAL CIRCUIT AS A COPYRIGHT LAW COURT – 1181

A. Intellectual Property Law Experience – 1183
1. Intellectual Property Law Mavens- 1184
2. Copyright Law Expertise – 1187
3. Technological Acumen – 1190

B. Rights Holder Bias? – 1192
1. Plaintiff Win Rates – 1192
2. Copyright Collegiality – 1193
C. Is Forum Shopping at the Federal Circuit a Reality? – 1195
D. Inconsistent Case Law Development — Sowing Copyright Confusion? – 1199
1. Which Circuits Face the Greatest Risk? – 1200
2. Who Does the Federal Circuit Cite? – 1201

CONCLUSION – 1202

APPENDIX: FEDERAL CIRCUIT CASES SURVEYED – 1206

The Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit is the nation’s preeminent patent law court. But curiously, it sometimes decides important copyright law cases too. The primary way that copyright cases reach the Federal Circuit is when a copyright case from another circuit also includes a patent claim, since all appeals of patent claims go to the Federal Circuit. Yet by the time many of these copyright-patent cases reach the Federal Circuit, the patent claims are dead, and the appeal only concerns copyright law issues. Commentators have worried about the Federal Circuit’s involvement in important copyright cases because of a perception that the court is biased in favor of rights holders, lacks copyright law expertise, and may create significant legal uncertainty with its copyright law decisions. These factors may also encourage copyright plaintiffs to forum shop their copyright appeals to the Federal Circuit by including a trivial patent claim in their case. Scholars have responded to these and related concerns by calling for greater scrutiny of the Federal Circuit’s non-patent case law.

Despite these calls for action, we only have anecdotal accounts of the Federal Circuit’s involvement in copyright law. In this Article, we take up the task of assessing the Federal Circuit’s role in copyright law. As part of that assessment, we review all of the Federal Circuit’s available copyright law opinions to learn more about the Court as a copyright law decision-maker. That review helps inform our analysis of the court’s relative advantages and disadvantages as a copyright law court. Overall, we conclude that despite concerns about the court’s involvement in important copyright law cases, the Federal Circuit is relatively well equipped to handle them. While the Federal Circuit may sometimes engage in copyright law mischief, its relative advantages outweigh its disadvantages and provide it with a stable foundation for a productive role in copyright law and policy going forward. However, the Federal Circuit’s growing involvement with software copyright cases may change the calculus significantly if the court becomes the de facto “supreme court” of software copyright law appeals, because such a role may make the court more disposed to formalistic, error-prone decision-making in that sphere. That outcome, in turn, would undermine copyright’s constitutional purpose of advancing societal progress.