DOD Proposes Substantial Revision to Intellectual Property Rules

On September 27, 2010, the DoD published a proposed rule which would substantially revise the DFARS Part 227 rules and the associated clauses relating to Intellectual Property. There are numerous proposed changes which collectively are a mixed bag, but perhaps the most problematic change relates to the treatment of commercial technical data and commercial computer software, which includes a caveat that any government funding eliminates the commercial item nature of the product.