[Federal Register Volume 79, Number 14 (Wednesday, January 22, 2014)]
[Notices]
[Pages 3591-3593]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2014-01098]


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DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE

GENERAL SERVICES ADMINISTRATION

NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION

[OMB Control No. 9000-0090: Docket No. 2012-0076; Sequence No. 71]


Federal Acquisition Regulation; Submission for OMB Review; Rights 
in Data and Copyrights

AGENCIES: Department of Defense (DOD), General Services Administration 
(GSA), and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

ACTION: Notice of request for public comments regarding an extension to 
an existing OMB clearance.

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SUMMARY: Under the provisions of the Paperwork Reduction Act, the 
Regulatory Secretariat will be submitting to the Office of Management 
and Budget (OMB) a request to review and approve an extension of a 
previously approved information collection requirement concerning 
rights in data and copyrights. A notice was published in the Federal 
Register at 78 FR 45196 on July 26, 2013. No comments were received.

DATES: Submit comments on or before February 21, 2014.

ADDRESSES: Submit comments identified by Information Collection 9000-
0090, Rights in Data and Copyrights, by any of the following methods:
     Regulations.gov: http://www.regulations.gov. Submit 
comments via the Federal eRulemaking portal by searching the OMB 
control number. Select the link ``Submit a Comment'' that corresponds 
with ``Information Collection 9000-0090, Rights in Data and 
Copyrights''. Follow the instructions provided at the ``Submit a 
Comment'' screen. Please include your name, company name (if any), and 
``Information Collection 9000-0090, Rights in Data and Copyrights'' on 
your attached document.
     Fax: 202-501-4067.
     Mail: General Services Administration, Regulatory 
Secretariat (MVCB), 1800 F Street NW., 2nd Floor, Washington, DC 20405-
0001. ATTN: Hada Flowers/IC 9000-0090, Rights in Data and Copyrights.
    Instructions: Please submit comments only and cite Information 
Collection 9000-0090, Rights in Data and Copyrights, in all 
correspondence related to this collection. All comments received will 
be posted without change to http://www.regulations.gov, including any 
personal and/or business confidential information provided.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Ms. Marissa Petrusek, Procurement 
Analyst, at 202-501-0136. For information pertaining to status or 
publication schedules, contact the Regulatory Secretariat at 202-501-
4755.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

A. Purpose

    Subpart 27.4, Rights in Data and Copyrights is a regulation which 
concerns the rights of the Government and contractors with whom the 
Government contracts, regarding the use, reproduction, and disclosure 
of information developed under such contracts. The delineation of such 
rights is necessary in order to protect the contractor's rights to not 
disclose proprietary data and to ensure that data developed with public 
funds is available to the public. The specific clauses associated with 
this information collection are as follows:
    (1) FAR 52.227-15, Representation of Limited Rights Data and 
Restricted Computer Software. This clauses is included in solicitations 
if the contracting officer requires an offeror to state whether limited 
rights data or restricted computer software are likely to be used in 
meeting the requirements. FAR 52.227-15 requires the contractor to 
identify whether data proposed for fulfilling the requirements is 
limited to data rights or restricted software. If the government does 
not receive unlimited rights, the contractor must provide a list of the 
data not covered. This information is submitted with a contractor's 
proposal to the Government. The Government uses the information to 
identify when there are only limited data rights or restricted software 
rights.
    (2) FAR 52.227-16, Additional Data Requirements. This clause is 
included in all contracts for experimental, developmental, research, or 
demonstration work (other than basic or applied research to be 
performed solely by a university or college where the contract amount 
will be $500,000 or less). The clause requires that the contractor keep 
all data first produced in the performance of the contract for a period 
of three years from the final

[[Page 3592]]

acceptance of all items delivered under the contract.
    FAR 52.227-16 allows the Government to require delivery of data not 
initially asked for at anytime during the contract and up to three 
years after completion. All data covered by this clause is paid for by 
the Government. FAR 52.227-16 also requires a record-keeping burden 
from the contractor to maintain data first produced or specifically 
used in performance of the contract within three years after acceptance 
of all items delivered under the contract. Much of this data will be in 
the form of the deliverables provided to the Government under the 
contract (final report, drawings, specifications, etc.). Some data, 
however, will be in the form of computations, preliminary data, records 
of experiments, etc., and these will be the data that will be required 
to be kept over and above the deliverables. The purpose of such 
recordkeeping requirements is to ensure that the Government can fully 
evaluate the research in order to ascertain future activities and to 
ensure that the research was completed and fully reported, as well as 
to give the public an opportunity to assess the research results and 
secure any additional information.
    When FAR 52.227-16 was first proposed, comments were received from 
educational institutions, which stated that requiring their 
investigators to keep records of unlimited rights data for three years 
after acceptance of deliverables was unreasonable because investigators 
do not segregate their research by contract, but rather combine it with 
other data to continue their research. In light of this, a $500,000 
threshold was adopted after surveying the major civilian R&D agencies, 
whose data suggested that the average value of an R&D contract ranged 
between $250,000 to $300,000; commensurate with other clause thresholds 
(e.g., small business subcontracting). Thus, for most R&D contracts 
with universities, no recordkeeping is required.
    (3) FAR 52.227-17, Rights in Data-Special Works. This clause is 
included in solicitations and contracts primarily for production or 
compilation of data. FAR 52.227-17 is used in rare and exceptional 
circumstances to permit the Government to limit the Contractor's rights 
in data by preventing the release, distribution and publication of any 
data first produced in the performance of the contract. This clause may 
also be limited to particular items and not the entire contract.
    (4) FAR 52.227-18, Rights in Data-Existing Works. This clause is 
included in contracts for audiovisual or similar works. FAR 52.227-18 
is used when the Government is acquiring existing audiovisual or 
similar works, such as books, without modification. This clause 
requires contractors to grant license for the Government to reproduce, 
prepare derivative works, and perform or display the materials 
publically.
    (5) FAR 52.227-19, Commercial Computer Software License. This 
clause is used in contracts and purchase orders for the acquisition of 
commercial software. FAR 52.227-19 requires the Government to set forth 
the minimum data rights it requires above and beyond what is set forth 
in the contractor's standard commercial license. The contractor is 
responsible for affixing a notice on any commercial software delivered 
under the contract that provides notice that the Government's rights 
regarding the data are set forth in the contract.
    (6) FAR 52.227-20, Rights in Data--SBIR Program. This clause is 
only required for small business innovation research (SBIR) contracts 
and it limits the Government's rights to disclose data first produced 
under the contract.
    (7) FAR 52.227-21, Technical Data Declaration, Revisions and 
Withholding of Payment--Major Systems. This clause requires the 
contractor to certify that the data delivered under the contract is 
complete, accurate and compliant with the requirements of the contract.
    (8) FAR 52.227-22 Major Systems-Minimum Rights. This clause is used 
in Civilian Agency Contracts, except for NASA and Coast Guard, 
providing the Government unlimited rights in any technical data, other 
than computer software, developed in the performance of the contract 
and related to a major system or supplies for a major system. As this 
provision is for major systems only, and few civilian agencies have 
such major systems, only about 30 contracts will require this 
certification.
    (9) FAR 52.227-23, Rights to Proposal Data (technical). This clause 
allows the Government to identify pages of a proposal that, as a 
condition of contact award, would be subject to unlimited rights in the 
technical data.
    (10) FAR 52.227-14, Rights in Data--General. Paragraph (d) outlines 
a procedure whereby a contracting officer can challenge restrictive 
markings on data delivered. Under civilian agency contracts, limited 
rights data or restricted computer software is rarely, if ever, 
delivered to the Government. Therefore, there will rarely be any 
challenges. Thus, there is no burden on the public and no information 
collection associated with this clause.

B. Annual Reporting Burden

    A reassessment of the rights in data and copyright provisions was 
performed. Based on the comprehensive reassessment performed, this 
information collection requirement represents a decrease from what was 
published in the Federal Register at 75 FR 27782 on May 18, 2010. The 
decrease is most likely a result of increased use of Governmentwide 
contracts including the GSA Federal Supply Schedule contracts, an 
increased use of commercial products since the inception of the 
clauses, and budget constraints over the last several years that have 
reduced research and development budgets and the ability to purchase 
costly data rights.
    There is no centralized database in the Federal Government that 
maintains information regarding the use of rights in data and copyright 
clauses. Subject matter experts in the intellectual property law field 
were consulted to obtain additional information that helped in 
estimating the revised public burden. FedBizOpps was searched to 
determine the use of these clauses in competitive contract 
solicitations throughout the Government. The Federal Procurement Data 
System (FPDS) was used to determine the likely contracts that would 
contain rights in data and copyright provisions. An assumption was made 
that sole source contracts citing the existence of limited rights in 
data, patent rights, copyrights or secret processes would contain the 
rights in data and copyright clauses, and were used as the basis for 
this information collection. Consequently, the FPDS data formed the 
basis for the estimated number of respondents per year based on the 
likely contracts awarded that would include the applicable clauses 
associated with this collection (52.227-15 through 52.227-23). The 
estimated number of contracts was then totaled to determine the overall 
number of respondents associated with this collection. Estimates were 
based on the total number of unique contractors awarded a sole source 
contract based on the existence of limited rights in data, patent 
rights, copyrights or secret processes. Similarly, FPDS data was used 
to estimate the number of responses per respondent for this collection. 
The estimate was based on the average number of actions per contractor 
and rounded to the nearest whole number. The estimates were then 
averaged to determine the overall number of responses per respondent 
associated with this collection. One burden hour was estimated per 
response

[[Page 3593]]

to read and prepare the information. No public comments were received 
in prior years that have challenged the validity of the Government's 
estimate.
    Respondents: 419.
    Responses per Respondent: 2.76.
    Annual Responses: 1,156.
    Hours per Response: 1.
    Total Burden Hours: 1,156.

B. Annual Recordkeeping Burden

    The annual recordkeeping burden is estimated as follows:
    Recordkeepers: 446.
    Responses: 5.
    Annual Response: 2,230.
    Hours per Recordkeeper: 2.
    Total Recordkeeping Burden Hours: 4,460.
    Obtaining Copies of Proposals: Requesters may obtain a copy of the 
information collection documents from the General Services 
Administration, Regulatory Secretariat (MVCB), 9000-0090, Rights in 
Data and Copyrights, telephone 202-501-4755. Please cite OMB Control 
No. 9000-0090, Rights in Data and Copyrights, in all correspondence.

    Dated: January 15, 2014.
Karlos Morgan,
Acting Director, Federal Acquisition Policy Division, Office of 
Government-wide Acquisition Policy, Office of Acquisition Policy, 
Office of Government-wide Policy.
[FR Doc. 2014-01098 Filed 1-21-14; 8:45 am]
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