Overview
This section establishes the mandatory requirement for contracts involving data to define the specific rights and obligations of both the Government and the contractor regarding data usage, reproduction, and disclosure. It distinguishes between the legal rights governing data and the separate contractual requirement to specify what data must actually be delivered.
Key Rules
- Mandatory Inclusion: Any contract requiring data to be produced, furnished, acquired, or used must include terms delineating data rights and obligations.
- Scope of Rights: These terms specifically address the use, reproduction, and disclosure of data by the Government and the contractor.
- Limitation of Data Rights Clauses: These clauses do not determine the type, quantity, or quality of data to be delivered; they only govern the rights to that data once identified.
- Requirement for Specificity: Because data rights clauses do not define deliverables, the contract must explicitly and separately specify the actual data that the contractor is required to deliver.
Practical Implications
- Contracting officers and program managers must use separate mechanisms, such as a Contract Data Requirements List (CDRL), to define delivery requirements, as data rights clauses alone do not compel the delivery of any specific information.
- Failure to clearly specify data deliverables in the contract can lead to situations where the Government has the legal right to use certain data but no contractual mechanism to force the contractor to provide it.