II.  Discussion and Analysis

Due to the significant level of detail in section 821, the recognition that the subject matter involves important privately-held intellectual property rights, and that the apparent congressional intent is that the private parties will enter into a direct legal relationship (e.g., a non-disclosure agreement) regarding protections for same, DoD decided to utilize the original statutory language and to preserve maximum flexibility for the private parties to reach mutual agreement--without unnecessary interference from the Government.

Section 821 can be characterized as establishing two new requirements regarding DoD's acquisition and exercise of rights in proprietary technical data. The statute--

Provides an exception to the statutorily authorized restrictions on the Government's rights to release privately-developed technical data outside the Government. The Government is now authorized to make limited releases of otherwise-proprietary data to certain types of support contractors that are supporting directly the Government's management and oversight of programs--subject to certain protections.

Mandates specific restrictions for the Government support contractors that will receive the proprietary technical data, to ensure that this use does not threaten the data owner's competitive advantage due to the proprietary information, and to provide the data owner with a more direct legal remedy against the support contractor for any breach of those use restrictions.