DoD: Acquisition Shows Improvement (But Still Needs It)
Client Alert | less than 1 min read | 10.27.16
On October 24, 2016, DoD released its annual report on the performance of the defense acquisition system – the fourth in a series continuing a “long-term effort to bring data-driven decision making to acquisition policy.” Generally, the report discusses many areas in which acquisition has improved (e.g., cost control) or is doing better than perceived (e.g., high-level program requirements, acquisition cycle times, private sector profitability), but it also highlights areas where improvement is needed (e.g., competition rates (which fell in FY 2015) and utilization of small business subcontractors (which “has been declining since FY 2010”)).
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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
