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.
Insights
Client Alert | 3 min read | 11.20.25
Design patents offer protection for the ornamental appearance of a product, focusing on aspects like its shape and surface decoration, as opposed to the functional aspects protected by utility patents. The scope of a design patent is defined by the drawings and any descriptive language within the patent itself. Recent decisions by the Federal Circuit emphasize the need for clarity in the prosecution history of a design patent in order to preserve desired scope to preserve intentional narrowing (and to avoid unintentional sacrifice of desired claim scope).
Client Alert | 3 min read | 11.20.25
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DOJ Announces Major Enforcement Actions Targeting North Korean Remote IT Worker Schemes
