No SBA Protest Review of Approved 8(a) Mentor-Protégé JVs
Client Alert | less than 1 min read | 02.10.12
In Trident, LLC (Jan. 24, 2012), the SBA’s Office of Hearing and Appeals found that SBA area offices have no jurisdiction to review the substance of 8(a) mentor-protégé agreements or joint venture agreements if they have been approved by the SBA’s Office of Business Development before the “final award” of an 8(a) contract. OHA then reversed the size determination made by the area office because it had “no authority (or reason)” to repeat a review of the joint venture agreement for compliance.
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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
