DoD Implements Franken Amendment For Non-Commercial Contracts
Client Alert | 1 min read | 03.04.10
On February 17, DOD issued a class deviation implementing the prohibitions of the "Franken Amendment" to the 2010 Defense Appropriations Act restricting the use of arbitration clauses in employment contracts and will consider comments received within two weeks of publication date in the formulation of an interim rule incorporating the clause into the DFARS (http://www.acq.osd.mil/dpap/policy/policyvault/USA000476-10-DPAP.pdf). Under the new DFARS clause, 252.222-7999, which is only applicable to new non-commercial contracts or orders in excess of $1 million that utilize funds appropriated by the FY10 Act, contractors agree (1) not to enter into any agreement with any of its employees that require, as a condition of employment, that the employee agree to resolve through arbitration certain types of employment disputes; (2) not to enforce such clauses in existing contracts; and (3) for contracts awarded after June 17, 2010, to require covered subcontractors to comply with these requirements.
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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.
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