Today the Federal Circuit issued one precedential opinion in a government contracts case and one nonprecedential opinion in a patent case. Here are the introductions to the opinions.
Raytheon Company v. Secretary of Defense (Precedential)
Raytheon Company (“Raytheon”) appeals a decision by the Armed Services Board of Contract Appeals (“Board”) that the unallowable salary costs associated with Raytheon’s lobbying activities are “expressly unallowable” under Federal Acquisition Regulation (“FAR”)1 § 31.205-22 (“Subsection 22”) and thus subject to penalty under FAR § 42.709-1(a)(1) (known as “level 1” penalties). Because we find that salary costs for lobbying activities are expressly unallowable under Subsection 22, we affirm.
In re General Electric Company (Nonprecedential)
General Electric Company (General Electric) appeals from three decisions of the Patent Trial and Appeal Board rejecting all pending claims in U.S. Patent Application Nos. 14/593,087 (the ’087 application), 15/070,427 (the ’427 application), and 15/070,483 (the ’483 application) (collectively, the reissue applications containing the reissue claims) under 35 U.S.C. § 251. See J.A. 1–135. Because we hold that the reissue claims impermissibly attempt to recapture subject matter surrendered during prosecution of U.S. Patent No. 7,990,705 (the ’705 patent), we affirm.