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Good Faith Duties in Procurements Confirmed

Client Alert | less than 1 min read | 11.13.12

Working around overbroad dicta in a recent decision of the Federal Circuit that DOJ has been trying to exploit, Judge Lettow in J.C.N. Constr., Inc. v. U.S. (Nov. 6, 2012) joined other CFC judges in affirming that the government still has an implied, good faith duty to treat bidders fairly and impartially. To work around the dicta, the CFC judges are saying this duty now emanates from subsection (b) of 28 U.S.C. § 1491, rather than from (a), from where it has traditionally been found to lodge.


Insights

Client Alert | 2 min read | 04.15.26

Who Invented That? When AI Writes the Code, Patent Validity Issues May Follow

In Fortress Iron, LP v. Digger Specialties, Inc., No. 24-2313 (Fed. Cir. Apr. 2, 2026), the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit reaffirmed what happens when a patent incorrectly lists the true inventors, and that error cannot be corrected under 35 U.S.C. § 256(b), which requires notice and a hearing for all “parties concerned.” In Fortress, the patent owner sought judicial correction to add an inventor under § 256(b), but that inventor could not be located. Because the missing inventor qualified as a “concerned” party under the statute, the lack of notice and a hearing for that inventor made correction under § 256(b) impossible, and the patents could not be saved from invalidity....