No Warranty Without Express Language
Client Alert | less than 1 min read | 02.24.10
Addressing the issue of warranties again within a week and once again reversing the Court of Federal Claims, the Federal Circuit in Precision Pine & Timber, Inc. v. U.S. (Feb. 19, 2010) found no warranty implicit in a contractual clause that allowed the Forest Service to suspend performance due to Endangered Species Act concerns. With respect to the one contract that lacked a suspension of work clause, however, the Forest Service breached because it lacked contractual authority to do so, even though it stopped performance in response to a district court injunction.
Insights
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
