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Court of International Trade Takes Jurisdiction Over Civil FCA Case

Client Alert | less than 1 min read | 08.04.05

Distinguishing its own precedent holding that it has no jurisdiction over civil FCA lawsuits brought by qui tam relators, the U.S. Court of International Trade (USCIT) recently held in U.S. v. Universal Fruits and Vegetables Corp., 2005 WL 1592953 (July 6, 2005), that it does have exclusive jurisdiction over non-qui-tam civil FCA actions brought by the government to recover unpaid customs duties. In this case involving government allegations that defendants avoided paying customs duties by making false statements to Customs officials, the USCIT confirmed a previous ruling of the Ninth Circuit that had transferred the matter to the USCIT for lack of subject matter jurisdiction.

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Client Alert | 6 min read | 11.26.25

From ‘Second’ to ‘First:’ Federal Circuit Tackles Obvious Claim Errors

Patent claims must be clear and definite, as they set the boundaries of the patentee’s rights. Occasionally, however, claim language contains errors, such as typographical mistakes or incorrect numbering. Courts possess very limited authority to correct such errors. The United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has emphasized that judicial correction is appropriate only in rare circumstances, where (1) the error is evident from the face of the patent, and (2) the proposed correction is the sole reasonable interpretation in view of the claim language, specification, and prosecution history. See Group One, Ltd. v. Hallmark Cards, Inc., 407 F.3d 1297, 1303 (Fed. Cir. 2005) and Novo Indus., L.P. v. Micro Molds Corp., 350 F.3d 1348, 1357 (Fed. Cir. 2003)....