State Higher Ed Entities Face Arm-of-the-State Test
Client Alert | less than 1 min read | 06.25.12
In US ex rel. Oberg v. Ky. Higher Educ., the Fourth Circuit considered whether corporate entities created by several states to provide higher education financing (and accused of making false claims to DOE) are "persons" subject to FCA liability. The court stated that "the critical inquiry is whether [the entities] are truly subject to sufficient state control to render them a part of the state, and not a 'person,'" and instructed that Eleventh Amendment "arm-of-the-state" analysis applies to determine if they are subject to liability.
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Client Alert | 2 min read | 11.14.25
Claim construction is a key stage of most patent litigations, where the court must decide the meaning of any disputed terms in the patent claims. Generally, claim terms are given their plain and ordinary meaning except under two circumstances: (1) when the patentee acts as its own lexicographer and sets out a definition for the term; and (2) when the patentee disavows the full scope of the term either in the specification or during prosecution. Thorner v. Sony Comput. Ent. Am. LLC, 669 F.3d 1362, 1365 (Fed. Cir. 2012). The Federal Circuit’s recent decision in Aortic Innovations LLC v. Edwards Lifesciences Corp. highlights that patentees can act as their own lexicographers through consistent, interchangeable usage of terms across the specification, effectively defining terms by implication.
Client Alert | 6 min read | 11.14.25
Microplastics Update: Regulatory and Litigation Developments in 2025
Client Alert | 6 min read | 11.13.25
