Commercial companies have long struggled to understand and comply with the overly complex statutes and regulations for intellectual property rights associated with government contracts and grants, and recent developments have not made the task any easier. Recent court decisions and rule changes make it more critical than ever for companies to take proper precautions to protect their IP when selling products or services to the government. The consequence can be that the government (or another contractor) may obtain a free worldwide license to distribute, use, and authorize others to use a company’s IP, or may even obtain ownership in the IP.

This program will address intellectual property key developments, including:

• Department of Defense rule changes related to commercial software and technical data
• Access to intellectual property by the government's support contractors
• Ownership of subject inventions developed with federal funds under the Bayh-Dole Act
• Recent government transparency and disclosure initiatives

We will apply for Virginia CLE credit after the program.