Federal Circuit Web Site 2.0

Am I the last person to see the new Federal Circuit web site? It is a major improvement over the previous page. Thanks to whatever federal IT workers did the job.

The main element of the new  home page is an attractive photograph of one of the Court's impressive courtrooms. There are navigation links above and below. The links at the top have scrolling submenus that appear when the cursor hovers over them. The links at the bottom are direct links to the referenced information. It is simple, but it works. On a quick look, it is not clear why the navigation tools are organized as they are. For example, "The Court" at the top has a submenu for "Judges," which is also a standalone item on the bottom right. Daily dispositions is also in two places, but that might just make the information easier to find.

The Federal Circuit hears appeals from the Court of International Trade concerning decisions by Customs and Border Protection. Consequently, I visit this site relatively often. It is nice to see "Opinions & Orders" prominently on the bottom. Even nicer is that on the page for opinions and orders, visitors can sort by the origin of the appealed decision. That means I can finally see a list of only appeals from the CIT. That will be very handy for most customs lawyers and even more handy for the patent lawyers who do not care at all about customs cases.

Note: I am tagging this as "off topic," but only slightly.

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