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FY 2013 NDAA Shines a Spotlight on Contractor Indemnification

Client Alert | 1 min read | 01.04.13

Section 865 of the FY 2013 National Defense Authorization Act, signed into law on January 2, requires the Secretary of Defense to report to Congress when "entering into a contract that includes an indemnification provision relating to bodily injury caused by negligence or relating to wrongful death" or modifying an existing contract to include such language. This requirement (which excludes contracts awarded under 10 U.S.C. § 2354 and CERCLA, but not indemnification provisions authorized under Public Law 85-804) ratchets up the recent focus on contractor recovery for work performed under government contracts with its mandate that the Secretary explain to Congress the justification for including the indemnification provision.


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Client Alert | 3 min read | 11.20.25

Design Patent Application Drawings & Prosecution History Must Be Clear (Merely Translucent Won’t Suffice!)

Design patents offer protection for the ornamental appearance of a product, focusing on aspects like its shape and surface decoration, as opposed to the functional aspects protected by utility patents. The scope of a design patent is defined by the drawings and any descriptive language within the patent itself. Recent decisions by the Federal Circuit emphasize the need for clarity in the prosecution history of a design patent in order to preserve desired scope to preserve intentional narrowing (and to avoid unintentional sacrifice of desired claim scope)....