Reliance on Supplier's Country of Origin Certification Reasonable
Client Alert | 1 min read | 09.04.14
On August 29, 2014, the D.C. Circuit affirmed the grant of summary judgment for the contractor in a qui tam FCA case alleging Govplace had violated the Trade Agreements Act (TAA) by unreasonably relying on the distributor's country of origin certification and selling IT hardware that allegedly failed to comply with the TAA. The court concluded not only that Govplace could reasonably rely on the distributor's certification (a practice it had disclosed to GSA during Contractor Administrator Visits), but also that, because the hardware was generally manufactured in both TAA-designated countries and in non-designated countries, neither an email from the manufacturer's employee nor a competitor's price list suggesting conflicting country of origin information undermined Govplace's continued reliance on the distributor's certification.
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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).
Client Alert | 5 min read | 11.26.25
Client Alert | 6 min read | 11.25.25
Brussels Court Clarifies the EU’s SPC Manufacturing Waiver Regulation Rules
Client Alert | 3 min read | 11.24.25
