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Not So Fast: Federal Circuit Reverses CFC Decision Limiting Indemnification Rights

Client Alert | less than 1 min read | 01.17.13

In Indian Harbor Insurance Co. (Jan. 11, 2013), the Federal Circuit reversed the CFC and held that letters from a state regulatory agency demanding clean-up of environmental contamination at a former military site resulting in a voluntary clean-up agreement do constitute a "claim for personal injury or property damage" under section 330 of the 1993 NDAA, which requires DoD to indemnify subsequent owners of military sites against certain such "claims." This decision is an important development for parties seeking federal indemnification in connection with state regulatory actions.


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Client Alert | 3 min read | 11.20.25

Design Patent Application Drawings & Prosecution History Must Be Clear (Merely Translucent Won’t Suffice!)

Design patents offer protection for the ornamental appearance of a product, focusing on aspects like its shape and surface decoration, as opposed to the functional aspects protected by utility patents. The scope of a design patent is defined by the drawings and any descriptive language within the patent itself. Recent decisions by the Federal Circuit emphasize the need for clarity in the prosecution history of a design patent in order to preserve desired scope to preserve intentional narrowing (and to avoid unintentional sacrifice of desired claim scope)....