Lack of Documented Award Defeats Discussions with Putative Awardee
Client Alert | less than 1 min read | 03.02.16
In SRA Int’l, Inc. (released last week), although the solicitation allowed the government to negotiate a final reduced price with the prospective awardee after it had been selected for award, GSA conducted discussions with the eventual awardee before documenting any best value determination and before the evaluations were even finalized. Because GSA did not conduct discussions with any other offerors, GAO held that the discussions were unequal and recommended that GSA go back, establish a competitive range, and open discussions with all remaining offerors.
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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
Client Alert | 6 min read | 11.13.25
