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The State of the Union, Suspension and Debarment Edition

Client Alert | less than 1 min read | 06.22.16

On June 15, 2016, the Interagency Suspension and Debarment Committee transmitted its annual report to Congress concerning the status of the federal suspension and debarment system, known as the “873 Report” after section 873 of Public Law 110-417, which requires the annual reporting. The 873 report evidences a slight decline in suspensions, proposed debarments, and debarments from FY 2014 to FY 2015, and an overall increase in the use of “alternatives to exclusion” such as administrative agreements (up 25 percent), and show cause letters (up 30 percent).

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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....