GAO Reports Deficiencies In DCAA Audit Reports
Client Alert | 1 min read | 09.24.09
After a review that was focused on DCAA offices that issued primarily "clean" opinions and reports, GAO concluded in testimony delivered to the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs on September 23 that there were serious quality problems in 65 of 69 DCAA audit report it reviewed (with minor problems in the other 4) and recommended measures to "strengthen" the role of DCAA in the process. Because of the admittedly biased sample used by GAO, the GAO report does not address or acknowledge quality problems in DCAA findings that are adverse to contractors, although GAO did note that DCAA's decision last year to report contractor systems as either "adequate" or "inadequate," eliminating "inadequate-in-part" findings, could unfairly penalize contractors that do not have material or serious deficiencies and recommended that DCAA seek "outside expertise" to develop audit policy and training on audit standards.
Insights
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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