§3772 Rights in technical data: provisions required in contracts

Summary

Require that, when possible, contracts for supplies or services by agencies listed in section 3063 include clear rules about technical data. The contract must say who has what rights in the data and, for commercial products, assume private funding unless shown otherwise under section 3784. It must list what data must be delivered and when, explain how delivered data will be checked, put data items on separate line items, and say ahead of time which data will come with limits on U.S. use. Contractors must update and deliver any data changed by design work that affects form, fit, or function. The contract must give remedies if data is missing, wrong, or does not meet requirements, and allow the agency to withhold payments or use other fixes while the contractor is not meeting data rules. The United States may also require data created during performance for up to six years after final acceptance or contract end, paying only reasonable costs to convert and deliver it when the data is needed for reprocurement, support, or upgrades and the data were at least partly developed with federal funds or meet certain other listed conditions. The U.S. can still require delivery even if it did not challenge a contractor’s restriction under section 3782. The Secretary of Defense may set standards for when the U.S. gets full use rights in delivered data or make a negotiation goal for such a time (no more than seven years). The Secretary may let certain government support contractors see and use delivered data only to give independent technical advice to the government. The Secretary may also issue reasonable, flexible negotiation guidelines about data rights.