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Federal Circuit Upholds Corrective Action After Outcome Prediction

Client Alert | less than 1 min read | 10.27.15

In Raytheon Co. v. U.S. (Oct. 23, 2015), the Federal Circuit upheld the CFC's denial of Raytheon's protest challenging corrective action taken in response to the GAO's outcome prediction statement that the unequal treatment challenge of a competitor would likely be sustained. The Federal Circuit agreed with the CFC that the Air Force's challenged pre-award communication with Raytheon amounted to unequal and misleading discussions and, therefore, the Air Force had a rational basis for reopening the bidding process.


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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....