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Japan (and Slovenia) Become "Qualifying Countries"

Client Alert | less than 1 min read | 08.05.16

To implement recently executed reciprocal defense procurement agreements with Japan and Slovenia, DoD on August 2 issued a final rule adding both countries to the list of 23 other “qualifying countries.” This designation will open DoD procurements to products from these countries, allow U.S. defense contractors to incorporate manufactured components from those countries into their end products as if they were U.S. manufactured components, and obviate specialty metal restrictions regarding those countries and their end products and components.

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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....