Data Rights Valuation in Software Acquisitions

Abstract

The right of the federal government to reuse, modify, reproduce, perform, display, release, and disclose data particularly computer software has become an important topic in contract negotiations. We describe the valuation methods used by DOD and industry to estimate software development costs and to assign value to data rights licenses that are broader than the default license described in DFARS. We find that the benefit to DOD arises from the impact of such licenses on future competition and costs. Two things must occur for expanded licenses to be worth the additional cost to DOD: the additional information covered by the license must be transferrable to alternative suppliers, either competing commercial companies or organic DOD facilities. Second, the information covered by the license must be useful to alternative suppliers, to the extent that it actually lowers their production costs.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Sep 01, 2012
Accession Number
ADA565798

Entities

People

  • Julianne B. Nelson
  • Stephany J. Head

Organizations

  • Center for Naval Analyses

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Air Platforms
  • C4I
  • Ground and Sea Platforms
  • Space
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Acquisition
  • Airborne Warning And Control System
  • Application Software
  • Computer Programming
  • Computer Programs
  • Computers
  • Contract Administration
  • Contractors
  • Contracts
  • Data Rights
  • Government Procurement
  • Governments
  • Intellectual Property
  • Law
  • Procurement
  • Production
  • Software Development

Fields of Study

  • Computer science

Readers

  • Database Systems and Applications
  • Government Contracting/Procurement.
  • Systems Analysis and Design