In the United States Court of Federal Claims No. 20-1082C (Filed Under Seal: November 6, 2020) (Reissued: November 13, 2020) ) UTECH PRODUCTS d/b/a ) Motion for bid preparation and proposal ENDOSOFT, LLC, ) costs and attorneys’ fees; cancelled ) solicitation; no judicial imprimatur; Plaintiff, ) dismissal of protest as moot ) v. ) ) UNITED STATES, ) ) Defendant. ) ) Alan Grayson, Esq., Windmere, Florida, for plaintiff. Sonia M. Orfield, Trial Attorney, Civil Division, Commercial Litigation Branch, United States Department of Justice, Washington, D.C., for defendant. With her on the briefs were Ethan P. Davis, Acting Assistant Attorney General, Robert E. Kirschman, Jr., Director, and Douglas K. Mickle, Assistant Director, Commercial Litigation Branch, United States Department of Justice, Washington, D.C., and Tyler W. Brown, Attorney, District Contract Law National Practice Group, Office of General Counsel, Department of Veterans Affairs, Washington, D.C. OPINION AND ORDER 1 LETTOW, Senior Judge. In this aborted bid protest, the parties dispute whether an award of bid preparation and proposal costs and attorneys’ fees and expenses is appropriate. Some months ago, plaintiff Utech Products d/b/a EndoSoft, LLC (“EndoSoft”) prevailed in its challenge to the United States Department of Veterans Affairs’ (“VA”) award of a sole-source contract for a gastrointestinal electronic medical record software system to be applied and used at VA Health Administration hospitals in a VA Region. See Utech Prods. v. United States, 148 Fed. Cl. 542 (2020). On May 28, 2020, this court enjoined VA from implementing a contract VA had awarded to ProVation Medical, Inc. (“ProVation”), and ordered that it be set aside. See id. at 552. On August 19, 2020, however, VA issued Solicitation No. 36C24620Q0866, which referenced ProVation as the awardee of the contract at issue in the prior case. See ECF No. 1-1 at 1, 16 (the “Solicitation”). 1 Because of the protective order entered in this case, this opinion was initially filed under seal. The parties were requested to review the decision and provide proposed redactions of any confidential or proprietary information. No redactions were requested. After EndoSoft filed its pre-award protest complaint on August 27, 2020, VA cancelled the Solicitation that same day. See Decl. of Alan Grayson (“Grayson Decl.”) ¶¶ 7-8, ECF No. 19. EndoSoft now seeks bid preparation and proposal costs as well as attorneys’ fees related to its renewed, and effectively successful, protest. See Pl.’s Mot. for Monetary Relief, ECF No. 15 (“Pl.’s Mot.”). BACKGROUND In September 2016, EndoSoft entered into a subcontract with Four Points Technology to provide a gastrointestinal electronic medical record (“GI EMR”) software system for VA Health Administration Region 6. See Utech Products, 148 Fed. Cl. at 544. On August 8, 2019, after experiencing technical issues with EndoSoft’s software, VA posted on the federal business opportunities website a notice of its intent to issue a sole-source contract for a gastrointestinal electronic medical record software system to ProVation. See id. at 544-46. The next day, EndoSoft sent an email to VA, protesting the award of the contract and noting that ...
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