Case of the Month 2021

PCI’s May 4 Case of the Month program will feature two cases for your consideration. The protest case is Sirius Federal, LLC et al v. United States, 2021 WL 1399738, a March 29, 2021 decision of the U.S. Court of Federal Claims which involves a fascinating RFQ issued by the GSA. The procurement was for a five-year Blanket Purchase Agreement and permitted Contractor Teaming Arrangements (“CTAs”). The procurement contemplated the award of nine contracts. After a couple of false starts, GSA finally announced its awardees in February 2021, and four companies filed suits in the COFC. As permitted by the RFQ, two of those companies were actually members of other CTAs that had been awarded a BPA, and their standing was challenged by two of the awardees. Our panelists will explain the intricacies of this procurement and the court’s decision; and, in the process, will provide a solid refresher on what standards must be met to obtain preliminary injunctive relief at the Court.

The second case we will discuss is a bit different from our standard fare. In Bitmanagement Software GMBH v. United States, 989 F.3d 938 (Fed. Cir. 2021), the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit dealt with a software manufacturer’s claim that the Navy’s copying of its software infringed its copyright because the Navy ignored one of the key conditions of the licensing agreement between the parties. Although the U.S. Court of Federal Claims agreed with the Government on all grounds, the appellate court took a different view of the matter on the issue of infringement and remanded the case to the COFC to determine damages. Join our panel as they dissect this fascinating case, a case which might pave the way for similar suits in the future as our Government, like the private sector, grows increasingly dependent on commercial software. As always, we will send both decisions to you before our program, and we strongly encourage you to read them—you will get a lot more out of our presentation if you do. We look forward to seeing you in May!

First Tuesday of the Month
2:00pm – 3:00pm ET

• January 5
• February 2
• March 2
• April 6
• May 4
• June 1
• September 7
• October 5
• November 2