1. Home
  2. |Insights
  3. |All Similar Past Performance Scores Are Not Comparable

All Similar Past Performance Scores Are Not Comparable

Client Alert | less than 1 min read | 12.21.05

In Clean Harbors Environmental Services, Inc., (Dec. 9, 2005, http://www.gao.gov/decisions/bidpro/2961762.pdf), GAO overturned an award because the agency evaluated only the numerical past performance scores resulting from responses to past performance questionnaires and did not consider the comparative relevance of the offerors’ past performance despite an RFP provision that such an analysis would be performed. Because the protester was the incumbent contractor with consequent highly relevant experience and the awardee’s comparable numerical scores were attributable to contracts that were significantly smaller and less complex, GAO found that protester had suffered competitive prejudice from the agency’s failure to follow the RFP.

Insights

Client Alert | 8 min read | 06.30.25

AI Companies Prevail in Path-Breaking Decisions on Fair Use

Last week, artificial intelligence companies won two significant copyright infringement lawsuits brought by copyright holders, marking an important milestone in the development of the law around AI. These decisions – Bartz v. Anthropic and Kadrey v. Meta (decided on June 23 and 25, 2025, respectively), along with a February 2025 decision in Thomson Reuters v. ROSS Intelligence – suggest that AI companies have plausible defenses to the intellectual property claims that have dogged them since generative AI technologies became widely available several years ago. Whether AI companies can, in all cases, successfully assert that their use of copyrighted content is “fair” will depend on their circumstances and further development of the law by the courts and Congress....