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New Zealand Companies Out of the 'Chillybin'

Client Alert | 1 min read | 08.19.15

On August 12, the U.S. in a Federal Register notice confirmed that it "has agreed to waive discriminatory purchasing requirements for eligible products and suppliers of New Zealand beginning on August 12, 2015," due to the WTO's approval of New Zealand as a member of the WTO Agreement on Government Procurement (GPA). Joining the 43-member GPA will provide new access to the U.S. federal marketplace for New Zealand-based companies, including "designated country" status under the Trade Agreements Act, and will open immediate doors to federal government contracting opportunities, including GSA and VA Schedule contracts, that generally limit  acquisition to end products that are manufactured or substantially transformed in the U.S. or a "designated country."

 

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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....