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Agencies Abuse Sole-Source Process

Client Alert | less than 1 min read | 02.20.13

On the heels of the CFC in Innovation Dev. Enters. of Am., Inc. v. U.S. (Jan. 29, 2013) finding that the Air Force had done zero advance planning before improperly justifying retention of the multiyear incumbent on a sole-source basis, the GAO issued its study faulting DOD more generally. In reviewing eight large sole-source awards, GAO found that DOD in six of them had failed to adhere to the recently tightened FAR requirements for sole-source buys.


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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)....