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Lenders Beware: Division in Delaware

Client Alert | 1 min read | 09.26.18

Recent amendments to the Delaware Limited Liability Company Act (DLLCA) should prompt lenders to take a closer look at their credit agreements and indentures and consider whether updates to those agreements are necessary. Effective August 1, 2018, a Delaware limited liability company (LLC) may divide itself into two or more LLCs and allocate the assets and liabilities of the dividing LLC among itself and/or the newly formed LLCs. This should be of concern to lenders because an allocation of assets by division may not violate the transfer and merger covenants in their loan agreements.

In this client alert, Gregory G. Plotko and Kevin Rubinstein examine the amendments to DLLCA and the safety measures lenders can implement to address this new type of division.

Click here to read the client alert. 

Insights

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....