DOD's Affirmative Action Program Unconstitutional
Client Alert | less than 1 min read | 11.06.08
The Federal Circuit in Rothe Dev. Corp. v. DOD (Nov. 4, 2008) has struck down as unconstitutional DOD's program under "section 1207" setting a goal of 5% of its contract dollars to small disadvantaged firms by giving them certain competitive advantages. The court found that Congress had not had before it sufficient evidence of specific discrimination in DOD contracting to satisfy the strict scrutiny standard required for legislation based on racial classifications.
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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
