Technical Data Rights in Defense Contracts

Start before the proposal goes in. Identify the data you must deliver, establish the government's rights in those data, and preserve the evidence supporting any restriction. A single “proprietary” label across the package cannot establish the rights in each file.

On This Page

• Identify the data and the governing clause
• Understand what each license permits
• Build the assertion from development records
• Control the handoff from proposal to delivery
• Respond to the right kind of marking problem
• Make the next data delivery reviewable

Identify the data and the governing clause

Technical data are recorded scientific or technical information, such as engineering drawings, specifications and maintenance instructions. The DFARS definition excludes computer software and ordinary financial, pricing and contract-administration information. Although it includes software documentation in the definition, the license provisions for software documentation need separate attention.

For an actual award, read the incorporated clause versions, applicable deviations, modifications and negotiated licenses. The framework below follows the published DFARS text, including the August 2025 version of 252.227-7013. A current online clause is a reference for analysis, not proof that an older contract contains that version.

The first split is between these situations:

• Other than commercial products and services: 252.227-7013 generally supplies the technical-data license framework.
• Commercial products and services: 252.227-7015 governs data pertaining to portions developed exclusively at private expense. Portions developed partly at government expense can bring 252.227-7013 into the same acquisition.
• SBIR/STTR data: the clauses direct these data to 252.227-7018, a separate regime. Do not automatically apply the ordinary mixed-funding timeline.
• Computer software and its documentation: check the applicable software terms. For commercial software and documentation, DFARS 227.7202-1 generally starts with licenses customarily provided to the public, subject to federal procurement law and user needs. The noncommercial technical-data clause directs software-documentation rights to 252.227-7014.

Next, separate the license from the delivery requirement. A license answers what the recipient may do with data; the contract must also establish what data are to arrive. DFARS 227.7103-2 calls for identifying deliverable content, quantity, format, schedule, acceptance criteria and delivery location. The contract data requirements list, or CDRL, and associated requirements should be reviewed alongside the rights clauses.

This distinction matters for sustainment. In its September 2025 review, GAO found that selected weapon-system programs struggled to review received data and experienced reliance on a single supplier because of data-rights shortfalls. Receiving a file and having a usable license are separate problems to solve.

Understand what each license permits

For data governed by 252.227-7013, funding is a starting point. Exceptions, prior government rights and negotiated licenses can change the result. The table summarizes the standard categories in DFARS 227.7103-5; it is not a substitute for classifying the individual data item.

Rights category	Typical basis under the standard clause	Practical consequence
Unlimited rights	Development exclusively with government funds, or a specified unrestricted-data category	The government may use and disclose the data for any purpose and authorize others to do so.
Government purpose rights	Mixed government and private development funding, unless an unlimited-rights exception applies	The government can authorize outside use for government purposes, including competitive procurement, subject to the required protections. Commercial use is excluded during the rights period.
Limited rights	Development exclusively at private expense, unless an unlimited-rights exception applies	Internal government use is permitted. Manufacture and outside disclosure are restricted, with defined exceptions including emergency repair and covered government support contractors.
Specifically negotiated rights	A license agreement incorporated into the contract	The actual negotiated scope controls. Under 252.227-7013 it cannot give the government less than the clause's limited-rights floor.

Government purpose rights normally run for five years unless another period is negotiated. The clock starts with execution of the contract, modification, option exercise or other covered instrument requiring the development or data creation, rather than automatically starting on data delivery. At expiry, the government receives unlimited rights. Track the actual start and expiry in the license record.

Private funding does not make every page limited-rights data. Form, fit and function data receive unlimited rights under 252.227-7013, as do data necessary for installation, operation, maintenance or training, apart from detailed manufacturing or process data. Specified studies and test work performed for the contract can also fall into an unlimited-rights category. Identify those exceptions before assigning a legend.

Commercial technical data require their own analysis. Under 252.227-7015, specified categories, including form, fit and function and qualifying operation or maintenance data, carry unrestricted rights. Other covered data generally allow government internal use but restrict manufacture of additional commercial products and outside disclosure, subject to the clause's exceptions. Calling a product commercial does not settle the rights in every component or every document.

Consider a hypothetical privately developed actuator delivered with a government-funded adaptation. Its manufacturing details, interface description and maintenance instructions should not receive one blanket rights designation. Engineering must identify what each file describes; contracts must apply the correct clause and exceptions; finance must substantiate which development effort was privately or publicly funded. The example illustrates a review method, not a predetermined license outcome.

Build the assertion from development records

For technical data describing an item, component or process, the relevant question is generally who funded development of that underlying item, component or process. Who paid to type or export the drawing is not the same question. Under 252.227-7013, private-expense determinations should be made at the lowest practicable level.

The clause's definition also matters for accounting. Development charged entirely to indirect cost pools, costs not allocated to a government contract, or a combination can qualify as private expense. Mixed funding includes both private-expense development and costs charged directly to a government contract. For fixed-price contracts, the clause excludes additional development costs needed to finish development above the firm-fixed-price or ceiling price when deciding whether funding was government, private or mixed. Do not treat an overrun as evidence of privately funded development.

Where 252.227-7017 is included, the offer's signed assertion attachment identifies the data, the basis for restriction, the asserted rights category and the person asserting it. For applicable hardware-related data, identify both the deliverable and the privately developed item, component or process. Include known subcontractor and supplier assertions. Failure to submit a complete, signed attachment may make the offer ineligible for award.

The attachment records an assertion; it does not prove it. DFARS 227.7103-11 explains the obligation to maintain written marking procedures and substantiating records. A practical implementation is a register linking the following records. The fields below are recommended operating controls, not a prescribed additional government form.

Record	What it should connect	Failure it helps prevent
Deliverable register	File identifier and revision, relevant item or process, contract requirement and delivery date	A rights assertion that cannot be matched to the delivered file
Development history	Work packages, relevant accounting records, development milestones and funding sources	Treating the entire system as privately developed despite government-funded portions
Rights history	Prior awards, licenses, assertions and government-purpose expiry dates	Claiming restrictions after the government has already acquired broader rights
Supplier record	Rights holder, asserted category, supporting basis and applicable flowdown	Promising rights the prime cannot obtain from its supplier
Delivery evidence	Authorized legend, marked portions, transmittal and copy of the exact delivered version	An approved assertion being omitted or changed during export

Keep development records as work proceeds, including enough detail to distinguish a preexisting component from a later modification. Do not use a general contract-closeout date as an automatic instruction to delete rights evidence. Assign responsibility for maintaining the register across engineering, finance and contracts so that a design change also triggers a rights review.

Control the handoff from proposal to delivery

Under 252.227-7013, asserted restrictions are carried into a contract attachment. Additional post-award assertions may be permitted for new information or inadvertent omissions, with limits where an omission would have materially affected source selection. Submit eligible additions as soon as practicable before the scheduled delivery. Do not treat the ability to add an assertion as permission to postpone the proposal review.

Before transmission, compare the exact file against the attachment and the authorized marking instructions. The clause addresses legends on transmittals or storage containers, affected printed pages, restricted portions of a page, direct computer transfers and reproductions. A company confidentiality footer is not a substitute for the applicable government-rights legend. Use the legend required by the incorporated clause, including the relevant identifying information and expiry where required.

Supplier handling needs the same discipline. The clause requires applicable flowdowns and protection of subcontractor rights; it prohibits using award leverage to obtain rights from suppliers. Where the prime contract requires data that a supplier may submit with other than unlimited rights, the clause permits that supplier to deliver the data directly to the government rather than through the higher tier. Agree on that route early enough to meet the prime contract's delivery obligations.

The avoidable failure is a mismatch between records: the proposal lists one component, the delivered drawing covers several, and the footer claims restrictions over the whole file. Resolve the mismatch before release by identifying the affected content and applying the rights that actually attach to it. Preserve the delivered version so a later question can be answered against what the government received.

Respond to the right kind of marking problem

Three problems require different responses. Under 252.227-7013, omitted markings create a presumption of unlimited rights. A contractor can request permission to correct an inadvertent omission, at its expense, within six months after furnishing or delivery, or an approved extension. The request must establish that the proposed marking is justified and conforming and acknowledge the government's lack of liability for specified prior uses or disclosures. Correction is not automatic.

Nonconforming markings concern the legend's format. If the contracting officer gives notice and the contractor does not correct or remove the marking within 60 days, the government may ignore it or correct it at the contractor's expense. This process differs from deciding whether the underlying restriction is justified.

A challenge to the asserted restriction is governed by 252.227-7037. A formal challenge notice requires a response within 60 days; the clause provides for a written extension request when additional preparation time is needed. The response must justify the restriction with evidence and is treated as a certified contract claim regardless of dollar amount. Route it immediately to the people responsible for contract disputes and the underlying records.

Commercial products and services have a private-expense presumption and corresponding limits on the government's challenge. That does not eliminate the clause's recordkeeping requirement. Also distinguish a preliminary request for information from a formal challenge, and a contracting officer's final decision from routine data acceptance. Record the notice, response deadline, supporting documents and decision together.

Make the next data delivery reviewable

For the next required delivery, choose one file and trace it end to end: contractual requirement, underlying development, funding evidence, supplier interest, government license, assertion and final marking. Resolve gaps before applying the same process across the package.

The useful outcome is a file the government can use within its license and a restriction the contractor can substantiate. That requires coordination at proposal and delivery, plus records that survive personnel changes and later contract modifications.

Source notes

• DFARS 252.227-7013: official clause covering noncommercial technical-data rights, definitions, assertions, markings and supplier obligations.
• DFARS 252.227-7015: official clause governing applicable commercial technical data.
• DFARS 252.227-7017: official solicitation provision for identifying asserted restrictions.
• DFARS 252.227-7037: official clause covering substantiation, challenges and decisions.
• DFARS 227.7103-5: acquisition rules explaining license categories and their limits.
• DFARS 227.7103-2: acquisition rules for specifying data deliverables.
• DFARS 227.7103-11: acquisition rules on written procedures and supporting records.
• DFARS 227.7202-1: acquisition policy for commercial software and documentation.
• GAO-25-107468: government audit of data rights and sustainment in selected weapon-system programs, reissued September 29, 2025.

Last checked: September 17, 2026.