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Constitutionality Of SDB Preference Still Undecided

Client Alert | less than 1 min read | 07.12.05

Expressing some frustration, the Federal Circuit in Rothe Dev. Corp. v. Dep't of Def. (June 28, 2005) remanded to the district court a second time for a determination of whether the latest enactment of the small disadvantaged business evaluation preference is constitutional, despite the price percentage bonus currently being suspended. The Federal Circuit repeated that the district court must apply strict scrutiny and must review evidence as to what Congress considered in establishing the preference.

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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....