The Army is readying a new intellectual property policy within the next two months aimed at allowing contractors to keep sensitive capability details a secret until final contract negotiations and allow officials more flexibility to move on from unwanted technologies, the service’s top acquisition official said Tuesday,
Bruce Jette, assistant secretary of the Army for acquisition, logistics & technology (ASA(ALT)), told attendees at a National Defense Industrial Association Event the new policy could include provisions for Army officials to sign non-disclosure agreements related to sensitive private sector IP to avoid leaks in the acquisition process.
“What we’ve got is an extensive intellectual property policy that’s being written,” Jette said. “Let me tell you, the government is leaky. You talk to people in the government, whatever you tell them, until we got some more stringent rules in place, you better be prepared for it to be exposed.Does that mean you can’t talk to us? No. What it means is if you have secret sauce, reserve your secret sauce. And only when we get down to formal contract discussions should you bring out the secret sauce.”
Jette said he needs more open dialogue with industry and is working to create a policy that especially instills stronger IP assurance for smaller, non-traditional defense partners.
“Many of you are small [businesses]. The number one thing that you own is your intellectual property. You don’t have large corporate buildings. You don’t have big facilities. What you have is this your intellectual property, your knowledge,” Jette said.
The Army’s standard process of releasing a request for proposals may be overlooking current industry capabilities according to Jette, who believes a more stringent IP approach may help new partners be more forthcoming with new technologies.
“You have ideas that we may not have thought about,” Jette said. “We want to put in a much more familiar approach to intellectual property with respect to you as technology developers. I think if we approach intellectual property in more of this commercial perspective it’s going to enhance your ability to participate.”
Army officials are working through the details of the plan now to ensure it complies with current acquisition guidelines according to Jette.
Jette said the new policy will also give the Army flexibility to handle IP in a manner more similar to the private sector, where officials have the ability to move on from technology that no longer meets current needs.
“Not having a clear policy has caused us some difficulty in the past. The problem the government has had is maybe your company goes belly up, maybe you sell your technology to somebody I don’t want to buy from anymore. Then, all of a sudden I’ve got this stuck together relationship and not to mention the fact that maybe i want to change something. That’s not how the commercial sector works,” Jette said.