GAO Stands Down in Lengthy Dispute with VA Over Set-Asides
Client Alert | less than 1 min read | 12.26.12
In Kingdomware Techs.--Recon., GAO put the Veteran Owned and Service Disabled Veteran Owned Small Business community on notice that it will no longer hear protests alleging that VA violated the Veterans Benefits Act of 2006 by using the Federal Supply Schedule without first determining whether a set aside was appropriate for them because protesters "will be unable to obtain meaningful relief" from GAO. The decision followed over a year of the VA defying numerous GAO recommendations on this very issue and a Court of Federal Claims decision by Judge Firestone in December favoring the agency's interpretation.
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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
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