The Story of Bad Faith in Government Contracts
Client Alert | 1 min read | 10.22.14
In his article "A Twice-Told Tale: The Strangely Repeated Story of 'Bad Faith' in Government Contracts," published in the latest issue of The Federal Circuit Bar Journal, C&M's Rick Claybrook tells the story of how the Supreme Court over 50 years ago suddenly injected intentional animus into the analysis of whether the government acted in bad faith in its dealings with contractors—and promptly got rebuffed by Congress. He suggests that the Federal Circuit, ironically, has repeated the same error in some of its more recent decisions.
Insights
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.
Client Alert | 6 min read | 11.14.25
Microplastics Update: Regulatory and Litigation Developments in 2025
Client Alert | 6 min read | 11.13.25
