Navigating Federal Contracting Rules on Inventions, Software, and Data, A Guide For Technology and Software Companies

     U.S. Government spending on technology is massive. In the budget for fiscal year 2016, President Barack Obama proposed spending over $86 billion on Information Technology. Indeed, the budget for Federal IT spending in 2014 and 2015 exceeded $80 billion, and that scale of spending on technology likely will not change dramatically any time soon. This paper provides an overview of the federal acquisition rules under the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) and the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFARS) that apply to the rights of United States agencies and departments and government contractors under solicitations and contracts involving technology acquisitions.