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Unicor Banned From Competing In Small Business Set Asides For Services

Client Alert | less than 1 min read | 02.14.05

On February 3, 2005, in response to two protests filed by small business contractors challenging the award of a contract to UNICOR (Federal Prison Industries or "FPI") under a total small business set-aside procurement, the SBA determined that UNICOR is other than small under the applicable size standard. UNICOR contended that, irrespective of its size, "it is eligible to compete for this procurement because recent changes in the law [specifically, March 26, 2004, amendments to the FAR] now define small business set asides as including FPI," but the SBA held that those requirements are not mandatory if the solicitation involves "acquiring services," as opposed to purchasing items listed on FPI's schedule.

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Client Alert | 3 min read | 11.20.25

Design Patent Application Drawings & Prosecution History Must Be Clear (Merely Translucent Won’t Suffice!)

Design patents offer protection for the ornamental appearance of a product, focusing on aspects like its shape and surface decoration, as opposed to the functional aspects protected by utility patents. The scope of a design patent is defined by the drawings and any descriptive language within the patent itself. Recent decisions by the Federal Circuit emphasize the need for clarity in the prosecution history of a design patent in order to preserve desired scope to preserve intentional narrowing (and to avoid unintentional sacrifice of desired claim scope)....