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.
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Client Alert | 2 min read | 11.14.25
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.
Client Alert | 6 min read | 11.14.25
Microplastics Update: Regulatory and Litigation Developments in 2025
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