McEwen J.G., Bloch D.S., Gray R.M. Intellectual Property in Government Contracts. Protecting and Enforcing IP at the State and Federal Level

Oxford University Press, 2009, -611 p.We hold these truths to be self-evident: cutting-edge technology is a driving force behind America’s sustained economic growth; domestic technology and knowledge-based markets are growing at unprecedented rates; new markets are opening to American goods under the influence of free-trade treaties; and companies that specialize in high technology are increasingly global in scope and reach.
Slightly less obvious is how this revolution has effected changes in the roles and dynamic relationship between the public- and private-sector technology communities. Government contracts were once the driving force in the development of many cutting-edge technologies (including, notably, the Internet). In today’s marketplace, the private sector has taken the lead. This is not to say that the Government is not a promising target for commercial or privately-developed off-the-shelf products or services. Indeed, for at least a decade business commentators have argued that business-to government sales are the next hot opportunity for technology companies. By most accounts, the U.S. Government is the world’s largest consumer of goods and services; the aggregate spending of the 50 States is not far behind. And Government’s demand — already billions of dollars strong — is growing.
For example, the Department of Defense needs to develop affordable, yet cutting-edge, new weapons systems, and there is a Government-wide mandate to utilize commercial solutions to maintain, upgrade, or replace existing legacy systems in order to lower overall total ownership costs for Government-held technology. The Department of Defense and other research-intensive Government agencies like NASA and the Department of Energy thus have started to rely on the private sector to provide the latest and greatest available technologies.
It appears that we have the makings of a perfect storm: the Government is seeking to maximize its use of commercial and nondevelopmental technologies; while private sector technology vendors are aggressively competing for previously untapped business opportunities in the new, wide-open, global marketplace. But it’s not quite that easy: there are numerous obstacles — some real, some imaginary — to the proliferation of public-private business relationships. Perhaps the key obstacle is that neither party is willing to abandon the comfort and safety of its traditional business model. And treatment of intellectual property is often cited by both sides as a key reason for this disconnect.Introduction to Government Contracts and Intellectual Property
Federal Procurement Practices
Federal Nonprocurement Transactions
Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights in Federal Contracts
State Procurement Practices