1. Home
  2. |Insights
  3. |Compensation Caps Rule Finalized

Compensation Caps Rule Finalized

Client Alert | less than 1 min read | 11.02.16

On September 30, 2016, a more than two-year-old interim rule on the allowable cost limits of contractor and subcontractor employee compensation became final. Under this rule, which "applies to costs incurred on contracts award on or after June 24, 2014," compensation costs are capped at $487,000 (adjusted annually in accordance with the Employment Cost Index), though agencies may establish narrow exceptions for "scientists, engineers, or other specialists."

Insights

Client Alert | 2 min read | 11.14.25

Defining Claim Terms by Implication: Lexicography Lessons from Aortic Innovations LLC v. Edwards Lifesciences Corporation

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....