27.303 Contract clauses.

(a)

(1) Insert a patent rights clause in all solicitations and contracts for experimental, developmental, or

research work as prescribed in this section.

(2) This section also applies to solicitations or contracts for construction work or architect-engineer

services that include-

(i) Experimental, developmental, or research work;

(ii) Test and evaluation studies; or

(iii) The design of a Government facility that may involve novel structures, machines, products,

materials, processes, or equipment (including construction equipment).

(3) The contracting officer shall not include a patent rights clause in solicitations or contracts for

construction work or architect-engineer services that call for or can be expected to involve only

"standard types of construction" "Standard types of construction" are those involving previously

developed equipment, methods, and processes and in which the distinctive features include only-

(i) Variations in size, shape, or capacity of conventional structures; or

(ii) Purely artistic or aesthetic (as distinguished from functionally significant) architectural

configurations and designs of both structural and nonstructural members or groupings, whether or

not they qualify for design patent protection.

(b)

(1) Unless an alternative patent rights clause is used in accordance with paragraph (c), (d), or (e) of

this section, insert the clause at 52.227-11, Patent Rights-Ownership by the Contractor.

(2) To the extent the information is not required elsewhere in the contract, and unless otherwise

specified by agency supplemental regulations, the contracting officer may modify 52.227-11(e) or

otherwise supplement the clause to require the contractor to do one or more of the following:

(i) Provide periodic (but not more frequently than annually) listings of all subject inventions required

to be disclosed during the period covered by the report.

(ii) Provide a report prior to the closeout of the contract listing all subject inventions or stating that

there were none.

(iii) Provide the filing date, serial number, title, patent number and issue date for any patent

application filed on any subject invention in any country or, upon request, copies of any patent

application so identified.

(iv) Furnish the Government an irrevocable power to inspect and make copies of the patent

application file when a Government employee is a co-inventor.
(3) Use the clause with its Alternate I if the Government must grant a foreign government a

sublicense in subject inventions pursuant to a specified treaty or executive agreement. The

contracting officer may modify Alternate I, if the agency head determines, at contract award, that it

would be in the national interest to sublicense foreign governments or international organizations

pursuant to any existing or future treaty or agreement. When necessary to effectuate a treaty or

agreement, Alternate I may be appropriately modified.

(4) Use the clause with its Alternate II in contracts that may be affected by existing or future treaties

or agreements.

(5) Use the clause with its Alternate III in contracts with nonprofit organizations for the operation of

a Government-owned facility.

(6) If the contract is for the operation of a Government-owned facility, the contracting officer may

use the clause with its Alternate IV.

(7) If the contract is for the performance of services at a Government owned and operated

laboratory or at a Government owned and contractor operated laboratory directed by the

Government to fulfill the Government’s obligations under a Cooperative Research and Development

Agreement (CRADA) authorized by 15 U. S.C. 3710a, the contracting officer may use the clause with

its Alternate V. Since this provision is considered an exercise of an agency’s "exceptional

circumstances" authority, the contracting officer must comply with 37 CFR 401.3(e) and 401.4.

(c) Insert a patent rights clause in accordance with the procedures at 27.304-2 if the solicitation or

contract is being placed on behalf of another Government agency.

(d) Insert a patent rights clause in accordance with agency procedures if the solicitation or contract

is for DoD, DOE, or NASA, and the contractor is other than a small business concern or nonprofit

organization.

(e)

(1) Except as provided in paragraph (e)(2) of this section, and after compliance with the applicable

procedures in 27.304-1(b), the contracting officer may insert the clause at 52.227-13, Patent RightsOwnership by the Government, or a clause prescribed by agency supplemental regulations, if-

(i) The contractor is not located in the United States or does not have a place of business located in

the United States or is subject to the control of a foreign government;

(ii) There are exceptional circumstances and the agency head determines that restriction or

elimination of the right to retain title to any subject invention will better promote the policy and

objectives of chapter 18 of title 35 of the United States Code;

(iii) A Government authority that is authorized by statute or executive order to conduct foreign

intelligence or counterintelligence activities, determines that restriction or elimination of the right

to retain any subject invention is necessary to protect the security of such activities; or

(iv) The contract includes the operation of a Government-owned, contractor-operated facility of DOE

primarily dedicated to that Department’s naval nuclear propulsion or weapons related programs.

(2) If an agency exercises the exceptions at paragraph (e)(1)(ii) or (iii) of this section in a contract

with a small business concern or a nonprofit organization, the contracting officer shall use the
clause at 52.227-11 with only those modifications necessary to address the exceptional

circumstances and shall include in the modified clause greater rights determinations procedures

equivalent to those at 52.227-13(b)(2).

(3) When using the clause at 52.227-13, Patent Rights-Ownership by the Government, the

contracting officer may supplement the clause to require the contractor to-

(i) Furnish a copy of each subcontract containing a patent rights clause (but if a copy of a

subcontract is furnished under another clause, a duplicate shall not be requested under the patent

rights clause);

(ii) Submit interim and final invention reports listing subject inventions and notifying the contracting

officer of all subcontracts awarded for experimental, developmental, or research work;

(iii) Provide the filing date, serial number, title, patent number, and issue date for any patent

application filed on any subject invention in any country or, upon specific request, copies of any

patent application so identified; and

(iv) Submit periodic reports on the utilization of a subject invention.

(4) Use the clause at 52.227-13 with its Alternate I if-

(i) The Government must grant a foreign government a sublicense in subject inventions pursuant to

a treaty or executive agreement; or

(ii) The agency head determines, at contract award, that it would be in the national interest to

sublicense foreign governments or international organizations pursuant to any existing or future

treaty or agreement. If other rights are necessary to effectuate any treaty or agreement, Alternate I

may be appropriately modified.

(5) Use the clause at 52.227-13 with its Alternate II in the contract when necessary to effectuate an

existing or future treaty or agreement.

Parent topic: Subpart 27.3 - Patent Rights under Government Contracts