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IG Confirms Many Recovery Act Criminal Investigations

Client Alert | less than 1 min read | 11.03.11

In what should serve as a warning that use of Recovery Act funds continues to draw close scrutiny from federal watchdogs, in written testimony on November 2 before a House subcommittee, DoE Inspector General Friedman revealed that his office has initiated over 100 criminal investigations involving “various schemes, including the submission of false information [and] claims for unallowable or unauthorized expenses,” under the Recovery Act.   He also confirmed that his office has “ongoing and planned reviews” of Recovery Act funding and usage.

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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....