ITA/USTR Request for Comments on Trade Agreements and Government Procurement
Client Alert | 1 min read | 08.21.17
Implementing the President’s direction in the Buy American Hire American Executive Order, the Department of Commerce’s International Trade Administration and the United States Trade Representative have issued a request for comments from industry on how U.S. government procurement obligations affect U.S. companies’ participation in the U.S. and foreign government procurement markets. This request presents a significant opportunity for companies to provide input on how such agreements have positively affected their global supply chains as well as the extent to which the public procurement markets of participating governments are important to U.S. industry and jobs. Unfortunately, the notices provide a very short 30-day period in which to respond (until 11:59 pm EDT on September 18, 2017), particularly given the end of summer timing.
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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
