Past Performance Remains Fertile Ground For Protest Challenges
Client Alert | less than 1 min read | 11.18.05
In J.A. Farrington Janitorial Servs. (Oct. 18, 2005, http://www.gao.gov/decisions/bidpro/296875.pdf), GAO found unreasonable the agency's assignment of a "high confidence" rating to the awardee of a grounds maintenance contract where the awardee's past performance references all related to efforts of far smaller magnitude and for only commercial customers. GAO also found that the agency's determination that the price offered by the protester, a HUBZone small business, was unrealistic amounted to a responsibility determination, and therefore had to be submitted to the Small Business Administration for a possible certificate of competency.
Contacts
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
Client Alert | 6 min read | 11.13.25
