Federal Circuit Mandates Full Lost Profits Award for Breach
Client Alert | less than 1 min read | 09.19.13
In Rockies Express Pipeline LLC v. Salazar (Sept. 13, 2013), the Federal Circuit confirmed that, by backing out of its agreement to take for ten years a certain percentage volume of a pipeline to be constructed in part on federal land, Interior materially breached. The CBCA had cut off the duration of the pipeline's lost profits remedy, but the circuit court reversed because Interior could not limit its damages by its actions after the pipeline had canceled for breach.
Insights
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
