World Health Organization Declares COVID-19 to be a Pandemic
Client Alert | 1 min read | 03.11.20
The World Health Organization has announced its determination that COVID-19 is a pandemic. At a press briefing on Wednesday, March 11, 2020, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the WHO announced that this is the first time the WHO has declared a pandemic as a result of a coronavirus outbreak. The announcement does not change the WHO’s assessment of the threat posed by COVID-19, nor does it require new WHO public health recommendations.
The WHO announcement means that U.S. employers now have additional flexibility to take measures to mitigate the spread of the virus. Guidance issued in 2009 by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) in response to the ‘swine flu’ outbreak authorizes employers to be more aggressive in responding to a pandemic, notwithstanding the obligations of the Americans with Disabilities Act. The EEOC guidance suggests that employers may be able to conduct certain types of testing and make more direct inquiries to their employees, as part of a containment plan.
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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
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