Re: Director Database Marketing (Herndon VA US) (http://www.saic.com/career/jobs/c5

[Tim Salo <salo () networkcs com>]

> Date: Thu, 3 Sep 1998 09:17:20 -0700
> From: owen () DeLong SJ CA US (Owen DeLong)
> To: nanog () merit edu, salo () networkcs com
> Subject: Re: Director Database Marketing (Herndon VA US) (http://www.saic.com/career/jobs/c5
>       [...]
> Under both common law and various federal regulations, NSI has posession
> of that data because of a federal contract supported and (previously)
> paid for by taxpayers.  As such, at least that much of the data is, by
> law, in the public domain.    ...
>       [...]

Thank you for summarizing one of the great myths about Federal contracting.

Your statement is, in general, false.

Intellectual property developed under federal contracts is, in general,
_not_ public domain.  In general, the intellectual property developed under
federal contracts is owned by the contractor, although the government
has broad rights to the data.

See for example:

o       NSF General Grant Conditions (GC-1)
        http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/1998/nsf98gc1a/nsf98gc1a.txt

        Including sections:

        17.     Information Collection
        18.     Copyrightable Material
        21.     Patent Rights

o       NSF Grant Policy Manual (95-26)

        Including sections:

        730  Intellectual Property
             731  Patent and Inventions
                  731.1  Background
                  731.2  National Science Foundation Patent Policy
                  731.3  Standard Patent Rights Clause
             732  Copyright
                  732.1  Rights to Copyrightable Material
                  732.2  Standard Copyrightable Material Clause
             733  Special Patent and Copyright Situations
                  733.1  Special Grant Provisions
                  733.2  Grants Not Primarily for Research
                  733.3  Grants Affected by International Agreements
             734  Dissemination and Sharing of Research Results
             735  Tangible Property
                  735.1  Background
                  735.2  Legal Rights to Tangible Property

o       Federal Acquisition Regulations
        http://farsite.hill.af.mil/

        Particularly:
        Part 27 - Patents, Data, and Copyrights

The first sentence of the following quote from the FARs may help
explain the motivation for this approach.

27.404 Basic Rights in Data Clause.

(f) Copyrighted Data.--(1) Data First Produced in the Performance of a
Contract.

(i) In order to enhance the transfer or dissemination of information produced
at Government expense, contractors are normally authorized, without prior
approval of the contracting officer, to establish claim to copyright
subsisting in technical or scientific articles based on or containing
data first produced in the performance of work under a contract containing
the clause at 52.227-14, Rights in Data--General and published in
academic, technical or professional journals, symposia proceedings and
similar works. ...

-tjs