[Code of Federal Regulations]
[Title 48, Volume 1]
[Revised as of October 1, 2003]
From the U.S. Government Printing Office via GPO Access
[CITE: 48CFR27.305-1]

[Page 509]
 
            TITLE 48--FEDERAL ACQUISITION REGULATIONS SYSTEM
 
                CHAPTER 1--FEDERAL ACQUISITION REGULATION
 
PART 27_PATENTS, DATA, AND COPYRIGHTS--Table of Contents
 
          Subpart 27.3_Patent Rights Under Government Contracts
 
Sec.  27.305-1  Patent rights follow-up.

    (a) It is important that the Government and the contractor know and 
exercise their rights in inventions conceived or first actually reduced 
to practice in the course of or under Government contracts in order to 
ensure their expeditious availability to the public and to enable the 
Government, the contractor, and the public to avoid unnecessary payment 
of royalties and to defend themselves against claims and suits for 
patent infringement. To attain these ends, contracts having a patent 
rights clause should be so administered that--
    (1) Inventions are identified, disclosed, and reported as required 
by the contract, and elections are made;
    (2) The rights of the Government in such inventions are established;
    (3) Where patent protection is appropriate, patent applications are 
timely filed and prosecuted by contractors or by the Government;
    (4) The rights of the Government in filed patent applications are 
documented by formal instruments such as licenses or assignments; and
    (5) Expeditious commercial utilization of such inventions is 
achieved.
    (b) If a subject invention is made under funding agreements of more 
than one agency, at the request of the contractor or on their own 
initiative, the agencies shall designate one agency as responsible for 
administration of the rights of the Government in the invention.

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