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SBA Modifies Time At Which Size Status Is Determined

Client Alert | 1 min read | 12.12.06

On November 15, 2006, the Small Business Administration ("SBA") amended its regulations (effective June 30, 2007) to require that (1) within 30 days of a merger, acquisition, or approved novation, a contractor must recertify its size status or inform the contracting agency that it is other than small; and (2) for contracts with durations of more than 5 years (including multiple award schedule contracts, MACs, and GWACs), the contractor must recertify its size status no more than 120 days prior to the end of the fifth year of the contract and no more than 120 days prior to the exercise of any option thereafter. A contractor's inability to recertify small business size status will not render the contractor ineligible to continue performance or require termination of the affected contract(s), but the contracting agency will no longer be able to count options or orders under such contracts towards its small business goals.

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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....