Cite as: 535 U. S. 826 (2002)
Opinion of Stevens, J.
plaintiff. In my judgment, each of the three policies that the Court has identified as supporting the "well-pleaded-complaint" rule governing district court jurisdiction, ante, at 831-832, points in the same direction with respect to appellate jurisdiction.
First, the interest in preserving the plaintiff's choice of forum includes not only the court that will conduct the trial but the appellate court as well. A plaintiff who has a legitimate interest in litigating in a circuit whose precedents support its theory of the case might omit a patent claim in order to avoid review in the Federal Circuit. In some cases that interest would be defeated by a rule that allowed a patent counterclaim to determine the appellate forum.
Second, although I doubt that a rule that enabled the counterclaimant to be the occasional master of the appellate forum "would radically expand" the number of cases heard by the Federal Circuit, ante, at 832, we must recognize that the exclusive jurisdiction of the Federal Circuit defined in § 1295(a)(1) does not comprise claims arising under the trademark and copyright laws, which are included in the district court's grant of jurisdiction under § 1338(a).2 As the instant litigation demonstrates, claims sounding in these other areas of intellectual property law are not infrequently bound up with patent counterclaims. The potential number of cases in which a counterclaim might direct to the Federal Circuit appeals that Congress specifically chose not to place within its exclusive jurisdiction is therefore significant.
Third, the interest in maintaining clarity and simplicity in rules governing appellate jurisdiction will be served by lim-2 The statute grants the Federal Circuit "exclusive jurisdiction . . . if the jurisdiction of [the district] court was based, in whole or in part, on [28 U. S. C.] section 1338 . . . , except that a case involving a claim arising under any Act of Congress relating to copyrights, exclusive rights in mask works, or trademarks and no other claims under section 1338(a) shall be governed" by provisions relating to appeals to the regional courts of appeals. 28 U. S. C. § 1295(a)(1).
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