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For the New Year, Out with Origin but In with New Definitions of Source & Nationality

Client Alert | 1 min read | 01.11.12

In a final rule published yesterday (but not effective until February 6), USAID revamped its source, origin, and nationality rules applicable to procurement of goods and services purchased with Foreign Assistance Act (FAA) funds both to implement the 1993 amendments to the FAA and to keep pace with the globalized economy.  The new regulations adopt a single, presumptively authorized geographic code 937 (which includes the United States, the cooperating or recipient country, and developing countries, exclusive of advanced developing countries and prohibited sources) and eliminate the “increasingly obsolete and difficult to apply” origin requirement, while changing the definitions of source and nationality to ensure that “fly-by-night” entities cannot be set up somewhere within the authorized geographic region to evade the restrictions.

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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)....

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