FAR and DFARS › DFARS Part 227: Patents, Data, and Copyrights › Subpart 227.71
DFARS 227.7108 Contractor data repositories.
The codified text (eCFR, as of 2026-10-02). Under the Revolutionary FAR Overhaul ↗, agencies follow class deviations with new text for many parts while the formal rules go through the Federal Register: check the solicitation and your contract's clauses, which rule.
In plain English
This section governs contractor data repositories, which are places where technical data can be stored and managed by a contractor. It sets minimum requirements for the repository management contractor to protect data, control its release, and handle liabilities. It also clarifies when contractors must deliver data to a repository and when they cannot be required to do so.
Applies to: Contractors and subcontractors involved with technical data repositories
What it requires
- Establish and maintain adequate procedures for protecting technical data from unauthorized release or disclosure
- Establish and maintain adequate procedures for controlling the release or disclosure of technical data to third parties consistent with the Government's rights
- When required by the contracting officer, deliver data to the Government on paper or in other specified media
- Be responsible for maintaining the currency of data delivered directly by Government contractors or subcontractors to the repository
Key terms: contractor data repositories · technical data · government purpose rights data · limited rights legends · use and nondisclosure agreements
Written by AI from this section's text. A guide, not legal advice: the text below rules.
The text
(a) Contractor data repositories may be established when permitted by agency procedures. The contractual instrument establishing the data repository must require, as a minimum, the data repository management contractor to—
(1) Establish and maintain adequate procedures for protecting technical data delivered to or stored at the repository from unauthorized release or disclosure;
(2) Establish and maintain adequate procedures for controlling the release or disclosure of technical data from the repository to third parties consistent with the Government's rights in such data;
(3) When required by the contracting officer, deliver data to the Government on paper or in other specified media;
(4) Be responsible for maintaining the currency of data delivered directly by Government contractors or subcontractors to the repository;
(5) Obtain use and nondisclosure agreements (see 227.7103-7) from all persons to whom government purpose rights data is released or disclosed; and
(6) Indemnify the Government from any liability to data owners or licensors resulting from, or as a consequence of, a release or disclosure of technical data made by the data repository contractor or its officers, employees, agents, or representatives.
(b) If the contractor is or will be the data repository manager, the contractor's data management and distribution responsibilities must be identified in the contract or the contract must reference the agreement between the Government and the contractor that establishes those responsibilities.
(c) If the contractor is not and will not be the data repository manager, do not require a contractor or subcontractor to deliver technical data marked with limited rights legends to a data repository managed by another contractor unless the contractor or subcontractor who has asserted limited rights agrees to release the data to the repository or has authorized, in writing, the Government to do so.
(d) Repository procedures may provide for the acceptance, delivery, and subsequent distribution of technical data in storage media other than paper, including direct electronic exchange of data between two computers. The procedures must provide for the identification of any portions of the data provided with restrictive legends, when appropriate. The acceptance criteria must be consistent with the authorized delivery format.
Sections it refers to
- 227.7103-7 Use and nondisclosure agreement.
Sections that refer to it
- 227.7207 Contractor data repositories.
← 227.7107-3 Approval of restricted designs. · 227.7200 Scope of subpart. →
Rule changes for DFARS Part 227
- Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement; Technical Amendments ↗ · final rule 2025-08-25 · effective 2025-08-25
- Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement: Small Business Innovation Research Program Data Rights (DFARS Case 2019-D043) ↗ · final rule 2024-12-18 · effective 2025-01-17
- Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement: Use of DoD Program Nomenclature (DFARS Case 2021-D002) ↗ · proposed 2024-02-15 · comments due 2024-04-15
Source: eCFR, 48 CFR chapters 1 and 2 (GPO GovInfo bulk data) ↗. Plain words for the terms: glossary.