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B-292483 1 (2003-09-30)

handle is hein.gao/gaobacykx0001 and id is 1 raw text is: Il im G A 0Comptroller General . .Accountability * Integrity Reliability of the United States United States General Accounting Office Washington, DC 20548 D .. Decision Matter of: The November Group, Inc. File: B-292483 Date: September 30, 2003 Alison L. Doyle, Esq., and Jeffrey R. Boodman, Esq., McKenna Long & Aldridge, for the protester. Scott C. Briles, Esq., Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, for the agency. Susan K. McAuliffe, Esq., and Christine S. Melody, Esq., Office of the General Counsel, GAO, participated in the preparation of the decision. DIGEST Protest alleging that agency improperly released solicitation materials containing protester's proprietary information is denied where protester fails to provide clear and convincing evidence rebutting agency's determination that materials at issue were based on publicly available information and general quality control concepts commonly used in epidemiological studies. DECISION The November Group, Inc. (TNG) protests the terms of request for proposals (RFP) No. 2003-N-00781, issued by the Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, for the development of a database system and related data collection and reporting assistance services to track the clinical use of assisted reproductive technology (ART) procedures in the treatment of infertility. The protester is the database system subcontractor of the incumbent contractor of ART data collection services for the agency, the Society for Assisted Reproductive Technology (SART). TNG alleges that certain solicitation materials issued by the agency (namely, a cleaning criteria document released in response to an offeror's question about, among other things, edit specifications for checking the accuracy of data) disclosed proprietary quality control and programming features of its ART data collection software. The protester contends that, since the released agency edit specifications apply to the protester's software, they reveal proprietary software coding and logic rules by stating, for example, the inverse of TNG's allegedly proprietary logic rules. TNG argues that with the released information other firms will be able to replicate its software and easily access its proprietary database, which, according to TNG, deprives it of the competitive advantage it expected to

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