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FERC/NERC Compliance Guidance Amid Potential Coronavirus Impacts

Client Alert | 1 min read | 03.19.20

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) jointly issued compliance guidance notifying NERC-registered entities that they will consider the impact of the coronavirus outbreak as an acceptable basis for noncompliance with certain NERC Reliability Standards and related activities, as follows: 

  • Noncompliance with obtaining and maintaining personnel certification under PER-003-2, for the period March 1, 2020 through December 31, 2020, except that registered entities must notify their Regional Entities and reliability coordinators when using system operator personnel that are not NERC-certified.
  • Noncompliance with Reliability Standard requirements involving periodic actions that would have to be taken between March 1, 2020 and July 31, 2020, except that registered entities must notify their Regional Entities of any periodic actions that will be missed during this period.
  • Regional Entities will postpone on-site audits, certifications, and other on-site activities through July 31, 2020.
  • Registered entities should communicate any coronavirus-related resource impacts associated with remote activities to their Regional Entities.

Please contact us if you have any questions regarding this guidance.

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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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