Fed. Cir. R. 28

(a) Contents and Organization of Principal Briefs.

Principal briefs must contain a cover pursuant to Federal Circuit Rule

32(a), including any required material on the inside cover, and the

following in the order listed:

(1) the certificate of interest under Federal Circuit Rule 47.4;

(2) the table of contents;

(3) the table of authorities;

(4) the statement of related cases under Federal Circuit Rule 47.5;

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(5) the jurisdictional statement including information

demonstrating that the judgment or order appealed from is

final or, if not final, appealable on another basis (e.g.,

preliminary injunction, Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 54(b)

certification of final judgment as to fewer than all of the claims

or parties, etc.);

(6) the statement of the issues;

(7) the statement of the case, including the citation of any

published decision of the trial tribunal in the proceedings;

(8) the summary of the argument;

(9) the argument, including the statement of the standard of

review which must appear with its own heading either within

the argument section or immediately preceding the argument

section;

(10) the conclusion and statement of relief sought;

(11) any addenda required by Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure

28(f), Federal Circuit Rule 28(c), or Federal Rule of Appellate

Procedure 32.1(b); and

(12) the certificate of compliance, if required by Federal Circuit Rule

32(b)(3).

(b) Exclusion of Contents from Appellee’s Brief.

An appellee’s statements of jurisdiction, the issues, the case and facts,

and the standard of review must be limited to specific areas of

disagreement with those of the appellant. Absent disagreement, an

appellee must not include those statements.

(c) Addendum Requirements.

(1) Principal Brief.

Unless an appellant or petitioner permissibly binds an

appendix with its principal brief pursuant to Federal Circuit

Rule 30(d), the principal brief of an appellant or petitioner must

include the following material as an addendum bound with the

brief:

(A) all judgments, orders, agency actions, or other decisions

appealed from and any opinions, memoranda, or findings

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and conclusions supporting them, including any

rehearing opinions or orders; and

(B) if the appeal involves a patent or patent application, all

patents or applications at issue on appeal reproduced in

their entirety.*

(2) Addendum Pagination.

Addendum material that is also designated for inclusion in the

appendix must be paginated with the corresponding page

numbers assigned to that material under Federal Circuit Rule

30(b)(2)(C). Other addendum material must be paginated in

such a way as to avoid confusion.

(3) Addendum Length.

Parties may seek leave of the court to waive the addendum

requirement of Federal Circuit Rule 28(c)(1) in whole or in part

if the number of pages in the addendum to the principal brief

will prevent the materials from being bound in a single volume,

which equates to roughly 300 double-sided pages of printed

addendum material, or 600 pages submitted electron ically. If

an addendum will cause the opening brief to exceed one volume,

each volume of the brief must include a cover that identifies the

volume number in Roman numerals and the range of pages

within the volume centered at the top.

(d) Brief Containing Confidential or Sealed Material.

Federal Circuit Rule 25.1 applies to confidential or sealed material in

briefs.

(e) Citations.

Opinions of this court and its predecessors should be cited as found in

the Federal Reporter. Parallel citations to any other reporters are

discouraged. Examples of acceptable citations are:

• Guotos v. United States, 552 F.2d 992 (Ct. Cl. 1976).

*Ed. Note: When an appellant permissibly binds an appendix to its brief, the materials listed under

Fed. Cir. R. 28(c)(1)(a)-(b) will be included in that appendix pursuant to Fed. Cir. R. 30(a)(1)(A)(iii)

and 30(c)(1), thus rendering the separate addendum requirement moot.

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• In re Sponnable, 405 F.2d 578 (CCPA 1969).

• South Corporation v. United States, 690 F.2d 1368 (Fed. Cir.

1982) (en banc).

• Doe v. Roe, No. 12-345, slip op. (Fed. Cir. Oct. 1, 1982).

(f) Referring to the Record and Appendix.

Any reference in a brief to the underlying record or to material

authorized to be included in an appendix must be to the corresponding

appendix page number(s) assigned to the material under Federal

Circuit Rule 30(b)(2)(C). References must be as short as possible

consistent with clarity and must follow the format required by the

clerk of court in the court’s Electronic Filing Procedures.

Indiscriminate references in briefs to blocks of record pages are

prohibited.

(g) Unrepresented Party Briefs; Response.

An unrepresented party may file a formal brief or an informal brief,

but not both.

(1) Informal Brief.

An informal principal brief must contain the information

required by the form prescribed by the court. No other contents

are required.

(2) Formal Brief.

A formal brief must comply with Rules 28 and 32 regarding

format and contents.

(3) Counseled Party Response Brief.

When the appellant or petitioner files an informal brief, the

appellee or respondent may elect to file an informal brief. An

informal response brief must contain a statement of the case,

but the brief may otherwise follow the format prescribed for the

unrepresented party. In an informal or formal response brief,

the party must affirmatively state under a separate heading

whether the party believes the court has jurisdiction over the

case, with reasons provided.

(h) Briefs in a Transferred Case.

When an appeal is transferred to this court by another court of appeals

after briefs have been filed, the parties may stipulate to proceed on

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those briefs instead of filing briefs prescribed by these rules. The

stipulation and each brief must be filed with this court within fourteen

(14) days after docketing, with the required number of paper copies to

be provided in accordance with Federal Circuit Rule 25(c)(3). The

court may also order supplemental briefs as needed.

(i) Multiple Parties.

(1) Single Brief.

Each party is permitted to file a single brief of each type

authorized for that party by these rules. Private parties with

identical or similar interests are strongly encouraged to join in

a single brief.

(2) Combined Brief Required.

When there are multiple parties represented by the same

counsel or counsel from the same firm, a combined brief must

be filed on behalf of all the parties represented by that counsel

or firm.

(j) Briefs in Related Cases.

Parties may not file entirely duplicative briefs in related cases. If all

or a portion of a brief is duplicative of a brief in a related case, as

defined by Federal Circuit Rule 47.5, the filing party must so advise

the court at the beginning of the brief or section containing the

duplicative content.