Breed

This case requires us to draw the line between the jurisdiction of our court and the jurisdiction of the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. It also illustrates the relationship between pleading in the district court and federal appellate jurisdiction and serves as a reminder that pleading a patent claim in the complaint will, in all likelihood, put the case on the path to the Federal Circuit rather than the Ninth Circuit.

The underlying dispute stems from the breakdown in a long business relationship between Hughes Aircraft Company and Ben Breed, a physicist/inventor who performed consulting work for Hughes. After Hughes purportedly failed to honor an oral agreement regarding the development of certain technology, Breed sued, alleging multiple state law claims relating to breach of contract and misappropriation of trade secrets, as well as a single federal claim for correction of named inventor under the patent statute, 35 U.S.C. § 256 . Federal court jurisdiction was premised on diversity, 28 U.S.C. § 1332 , and on the district court’s jurisdiction over a “civil action arising under any Act of Congress relating to *1176 patents,” 28 U.S.C. § 1338 (a). The district court…