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FAR Council Delivers Last-Minute Holiday Gift by Extending the Comment Period on Proposed Rule Imposing Mandatory Climate Disclosures for Federal Contractors

Client Alert | 1 min read | 12.23.22

On December 23, 2022, the Department of Defense (“DoD”), General Services Administration (“GSA”), and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (“NASA”) extended the comment period on the proposed rule, “Disclosure of Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Climate-Related Financial Risk,” from January 13, 2023 to February 13, 2023.  As we summarized previously, the proposed rule would, if finalized, require thousands of federal contractors to inventory and publicly disclose their Scope 1 and Scope 2 greenhouse gas (“GHG”) emissions, while further requiring “major” contractors to also establish and validate GHG emission-reduction targets tailored to the goals of the Paris Agreement.

The 30-day extension should be a welcome surprise to a wide range of contractors still attempting to unwrap the impact of this largely unprecedented proposal.  Crowell’s team stands ready to assist in evaluating the implications and identifying issues worthy of comment.    

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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....

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