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Claim Preparation Attorney's Fees Award Affirmed

Client Alert | 1 min read | 04.29.15

In SUFI Network Servs., Inc. v. U.S. (April 24, 2015), a C&M case, the Federal Circuit affirmed the award of attorney's fees to the contractor for claim preparation granted by the Court of Federal Claims, remanding the matter back to the CFC only to recalculate the starting point for interest and to add overhead and profit to the award. The court rejected  the government's principal attacks, finding that SUFI was permitted to sue in the CFC after the CO had failed to issue a timely final decision on its claim, fees in this non-CDA case were foreseeable and recoverable as breach damages, and C&M's standard rates were reasonable, while finding merit in SUFI's cross-appeal requesting overhead and profit as part of the breach damages available under the common law.


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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)....