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Administration Ups the Ante on Federal Government's Use of Renewable Energy

Client Alert | 1 min read | 12.17.13

On December 5, the White House issued a memorandum directing federal agencies to sharply increase their use of renewable energy, from the current level of 7.5% of all energy consumed to a new goal of 20% by the year 2020. In what is likely to be good news for contractors in the emerging renewable energy field, under the White House guidance, agencies will increase their reliance on renewable sources by (i) installing agency-funded renewable energy on-site at federal facilities and retain renewable energy certificates; (ii) contracting for energy that includes the installation of a renewable energy project on-site at a federal facility or off-site from a federal facility and the retention of renewable energy certificates for the term of the contract; (iii) purchasing electricity and corresponding renewable energy certificates; and (iv) purchasing renewable energy certificates.


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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....