The Court of Customs and Patent Appeals was the United States court in Washington, D.C. with jurisdiction over all decisions from the U.S. Customs Court (USCC) (renamed in 1980 the Court of International Trade (CIT)) and decisions by the Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) until Congress transferred its jurisdiction to the U.S. Court of Appeals for Federal Claims in 1982. The court was originally created in 1909 as the U.S. Court of Customs Appeals to reduce the strain on circuit courts from hearing customs claims, and later in 1929, Congress renamed the court and expanded its jurisdiction to include patents and trademarks.
[Last updated in June of 2021 by the Wex Definitions Team]