Topic Archives: Protests & Litigation

September 9, 2021 – Protests & Litigation

Waivers of Minor Informalities, Meaningful Discussions, and a “Dreary Wreck” of a Procurement (August 2021 Bid Protest Roundup)

In this month’s Law360 Bid Protest Roundup, we consider three decisions released in August 2021. In the first case, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) considered and rejected a protester’s argument that an agency was required to waive or allow the offeror to correct a minor informality that the agency determined made its proposal ineligible for award. In the ...›

August 13, 2021 – Protests & Litigation

Proposed Rule for Tightening Buy American Act Restrictions

We previously commented on one aspect of the Trump Administration’s America-First policies that the Biden Administration has embraced wholeheartedly: doubling down on domestic preferences in Federal procurements. Consistent with the previous and current administrations’ policies, the FAR Councils recently released a proposed rule to tighten the screws even further on Buy American Act (BAA) regulations. Background Under the current rules, in ...›

August 11, 2021 – Protests & Litigation

JULY 2021 BID PROTEST ROUNDUP (LAW360 SPOTLIGHT)

This month’s Law360 Bid Protest Roundup examines three recent decisions from the U.S. Court of Federal Claims. The first two cases highlight splits between the court and the Government Accountability Office related to contract interpretation, price realism analyses and post hoc extensions of proposal deadlines. The third case takes an in-depth look at the bounds of sole-source awards. ...›

July 13, 2021 – Protests & Litigation

JUNE 2021 BID PROTEST ROUNDUP (LAW360 SPOTLIGHT)

This month’s Law360 Bid Protest Roundup starts on a promising note as courts begin opening their doors after months of restricted access due to the COVID-19 pandemic.  This Roundup covers decisions addressing the Blue and Gold Fleet rule, recovery of protest costs at the GAO, unequal treatment, and agency responsibilities when inadvertently disclosing proprietary pricing ...›

June 8, 2021 – Protests & Litigation

May 2021 Bid Protest Roundup (Law360 Spotlight)

This month’s Bid Protest Roundup (featured on Law360) examines three recent decisions by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) and the Court of Federal Claims (COFC). The first, Tridentis, LLC[1], highlights the importance of submitting a sufficiently clear proposal; the second, M R Pittman Group, LLC[2], reminds contractors to timely protest patent ambiguities in solicitations before the proposal submission ...›

Protests and Litigation
May 7, 2021 – Protests & Litigation

APRIL 2021 BID PROTEST ROUNDUP (LAW360 SPOTLIGHT)

This installment of our monthly Law360 bid protest spotlight examines three protest decisions addressing (1) mismatches between proposed labor categories and the scope of a vendor’s underlying General Services Administration (GSA) schedule contract; (2) whether an agency improperly used an unstated evaluation criterion; and (3) whether unsuccessful Team Leaders under a GSA co-prime Contractor Team Arrangement (CTA) ...›

Protests and Litigation
April 5, 2021 – Protests & Litigation

March 2021 Bid Protest Roundup

This past month marked the release of multiple notable bid protest decisions. On an issue of first impression, the Federal Circuit in Safeguard Base Operations[1] held that the Court of Federal Claims (COFC) has jurisdiction over bid protests based on the implied-in-fact contract theory that the government must evaluate bids fairly. In both VS2, LLC,[2] ...›

Protests and Litigation
March 9, 2021 – Protests & Litigation

February 2021 Bid Protest Roundup (Law360 Spotlight)

This installment of our monthly Law360 bid protest spotlight considers: (1) a company’s successful challenge to an agency’s decision to take corrective action and reopen a competition the company had already won; (2) a Federal Circuit decision clarifying the protest timelines applicable for triggering a stay of contract performance; and (3) a decision reaffirming the ...›

March 2, 2021 – Intellectual Property, Protests & Litigation

U.S. Navy Breached Implied-In-Fact Software License, Federal Circuit Decides in Bitmanagement

The Federal Circuit handed a substantial victory to Bitmanagement Software GMBH last week, finding the U.S. Navy had infringed the company’s copyright by installing its three-dimensional visualization software on hundreds of thousands of government computers without using license-tracking software to monitor and limit the number of simultaneous users.  The court’s decision is significant, not only ...›