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Tucker Act Reaches More NAFIs Than Many Thought

Client Alert | less than 1 min read | 02.02.11

In a 6-4 en banc decision, the Federal Circuit in Slattery v. U.S. (Jan. 28, 2011) has overruled significant contrary precedent and explained that the Tucker Act provides jurisdiction to sue non-appropriated funds instrumentalities of the government, irrespective of their funding source and whether or not they are listed explicitly in the act (such as the military exchanges have been since the 1970 amendments).  Judgments in such cases will be paid from the Judgment Fund.

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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....