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Introducing the "Government Contracts Classroom"

Client Alert | less than 1 min read | 02.20.20

Welcome to our Government Contracts Classroom. Through a variety of media, the Classroom will serve as a resource for government contractors. The Classroom is intended to provide insight and training on issues that government contractors, and their legal and business teams, often face. The Classroom will be updated regularly with new content, host on-demand materials, and have a schedule of upcoming presentations hosted by the Crowell & Moring Government Contracts Group.

We’d love to hear from you – please click here to suggest topics for future trainings.

Insights

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....