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Awardee's Reliance on Incumbent Employee Who Had Never Been Contacted Constitutes a Material Misrepresentation of Proposed Staff

Client Alert | 1 min read | 01.07.20

In T3I Sols., LLC, GAO sustained a post-award protest challenging an Air Force award for courseware and training services finding that the awardee materially misrepresented its available workforce by proposing an incumbent employee without contacting that employee in advance of proposal submission or obtaining permission to include him as part of the awardee’s proposed team. The agency relied on the awardee’s representations regarding this employee and his qualifications in finding the awardee technically acceptable. GAO rejected the argument that there was no misrepresentation because the solicitation did not require commitment letters or employee representations. GAO further explained that the awardee’s “hope or belief” that it would be able to offer incumbent employees was not sufficient to represent commitment without more. 

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Client Alert | 6 min read | 11.26.25

From ‘Second’ to ‘First:’ Federal Circuit Tackles Obvious Claim Errors

Patent claims must be clear and definite, as they set the boundaries of the patentee’s rights. Occasionally, however, claim language contains errors, such as typographical mistakes or incorrect numbering. Courts possess very limited authority to correct such errors. The United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has emphasized that judicial correction is appropriate only in rare circumstances, where (1) the error is evident from the face of the patent, and (2) the proposed correction is the sole reasonable interpretation in view of the claim language, specification, and prosecution history. See Group One, Ltd. v. Hallmark Cards, Inc., 407 F.3d 1297, 1303 (Fed. Cir. 2005) and Novo Indus., L.P. v. Micro Molds Corp., 350 F.3d 1348, 1357 (Fed. Cir. 2003)....