Bradley – When a mentor-protégé joint venture fractures before a federal contract is awarded—and the mentor company that supplied all of the experience and past performance tries to protest the resulting contract award? The United States Court of Federal Claims answered that question decisively in IBSS v. United States, dismissing the bid protests of both the large-business mentor and a fellow awardee on the same multiple-award vehicle. The decision delivers three lessons that every government contractor — and every attorney advising one — needs to understand: who qualifies as an “interested party” in a bid protest, how courts read that standard in a multiple-award IDIQ context, and why novation challenges are usually beyond the court’s bid protest jurisdiction.

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