1. Home
  2. |Insights
  3. |Attention To Small Business Subcontracting Plan Is No Small Matter

Attention To Small Business Subcontracting Plan Is No Small Matter

Client Alert | less than 1 min read | 11.07.05

In Coastal Maritime Stevedoring, LLC (Sept. 22, 2005 http://www.gao.gov/decisions/bidpro/296627.pdf), GAO found unreasonable the Source Selection Authority's decision to change the awardee's rating from unsatisfactory to satisfactory under the socioeconomic commitment factor when the awardee's small business subcontracting plan failed to address required elements of FAR 19.704 and otherwise neglected to comply with the solicitation's required objective for subcontracting to small businesses 10% of the total contract value. GAO also determined that the agency's price/technical tradeoff was flawed because it failed to take into account advantages in the protester's proposal that translated into quantifiable cost savings to the government.

Contacts

Insights

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....