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Subs: Don't Forget The Disputes Clause

Client Alert | less than 1 min read | 07.06.05

The subcontractor in Alpine Computers, Inc. (ASBCA June 22, 2005), learned the hard way that a sub should make sure its contract with the prime makes it mandatory for the prime to sponsor its good-faith claim against the government. When the prime went belly up after the Army suspected fraud and defaulted it, the sub found it could not sue the Army to pay for product it had delivered to the Army when the prime did not sponsor its claim.

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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....