Nonmanufacturer Rule Applies to Procurements for Services
Client Alert | 1 min read | 09.25.14
In Rotech Healthcare Inc. v. U.S. (Sept. 19), the Court of Federal Claims enjoined the Department of Veterans Affairs from moving forward with a procurement for home oxygen supplies and services issued under a NAICS Code for services, finding that the solicitation violated the statutory "nonmanufacturer rule" (NMR)—a provision that requires nonmanufacturer recipients of small business set-aside contracts for products to provide the products of domestic small business manufacturers or processors. Relying on a 2006 CFC decision instead of a subsequent, unambiguous SBA regulation that limited the NMR to procurements assigned manufacturing or supply NAICS codes, the court explained that Congress intended the NMR to apply to mixed service and supply contracts irrespective of NAICS code.
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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.
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