Managing intellectual property (IP) when working with the federal government is one of the more challenging areas of government contracts. Questions regarding who owns the IP, who has rights to the IP and how may a contractor and the government use the IP often lead to varying interpretations and conclusions by the involved parties. Answers to these same questions may be different depending on the parties’ ability to sort through the myriad of IP regulations when doing business with the government. This Practical Guide, four-part virtual course will guide you through these key IP issues and considerations and allow you to investigate extensively how to protect your company’s IP rights. In doing so, we will discuss how to leverage your IP successfully and address the most pressing concerns of your government customer.
Key Session objectives include:
- The different types of IP (Inventions, Technical Data, Computer Software, Copyrights, Special Works, etc.)
- How to allocate rights in you IP under the current statutory and regulatory framework
- What rights the government has in your IP
- How to properly mark your IP
- Maintaining IP development and funding records
- Real-life case examples of dealing with IP and the federal government
- Interactive exercises to test in real-time your understanding of the material
- How to resolve an IP dispute with the government (or with a prime or sub)
- Subcontractor rights and obligations when dealing with IP
- Commercial item rights in the IP context
Key Course takeaways include:
- A simple 30-second solution for managing virtually any IP question or issue
- Protecting rights in part of your IP without giving up rights to the whole
- Understanding ownership versus licensing
- An approach(s) to tracking IP development
- Techniques to properly mark your IP
- Avoiding government challenges and claims of rights to your IP
- Confirming you actually have rights to the IP that you think you have
Instructor: Jeff Newman, Thompson Coburn