FAR and DFARS › DFARS Part 227: Patents, Data, and Copyrights › Subpart 227.72
DFARS 227.7203-1 Policy.
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 states DoD's policy to acquire only the computer software, documentation, and rights needed to meet agency needs. It requires solicitations and contracts to specify deliverables, acceptance procedures, separate line items, and any restrictions on Government rights. It also protects offerors from being forced to give up privately developed software rights or being discouraged from offering such software.
Applies to: DoD solicitations and contracts for computer software and computer software documentation
What it requires
- Specify the computer software or documentation to be delivered and the delivery schedules
- Establish or reference procedures for determining acceptability of the software or documentation
- Establish separate contract line items, to the extent practicable, and require separate pricing of each deliverable data item
- Require offerors to identify, to the extent practicable, software or documentation furnished with restrictions on Government rights, and contractors to identify such restrictions prior to delivery
Key terms: computer software · computer software documentation · contract line items · restrictions on the Government's rights · developed exclusively at private expense
Written by AI from this section's text. A guide, not legal advice: the text below rules.
The text
(a) DoD policy is to acquire only the computer software and computer software documentation, and the rights in such software or documentation, necessary to satisfy agency needs.
(b) Solicitations and contracts shall—
(1) Specify the computer software or computer software documentation to be delivered under a contract and the delivery schedules for the software or documentation;
(2) Establish or reference procedures for determining the acceptability of computer software or computer software documentation;
(3) Establish separate contract line items, to the extent practicable, for the computer software or computer software documentation to be delivered under a contract and require offerors and contractors to price separately each deliverable data item; and
(4) Require offerors to identify, to the extent practicable, computer software or computer software documentation to be furnished with restrictions on the Government's rights and require contractors to identify computer software or computer software documentation to be delivered with such restrictions prior to delivery.
(c) Offerors shall not be required, either as a condition of being responsive to a solicitation or as a condition for award, to sell or otherwise relinquish to the Government any rights in computer software developed exclusively at private expense except for the software identified at 227.7203-5(a) (3) through (6).
(d) Offerors and contractors shall not be prohibited or discouraged from furnishing or offering to furnish computer software developed exclusively at private expense solely because the Government's rights to use, modify, release, reproduce, perform, display, or disclose the software may be restricted.
(e) For acquisitions involving major weapon systems or subsystems of major weapon systems, the acquisition plan shall address acquisition strategies that provide for computer software and computer software documentation, and the associated license rights, in accordance with 207.106(S-70).
Sections it refers to
- 227.7203-5 Government rights.
- 207.106 Additional requirements for major systems.
Sections that refer to it
- 227.7203-2 Acquisition of other than commercial computer software and computer software documentation and associated rights.
← 227.7203 Other than commercial computer software and other than commercial computer software documentation. · 227.7203-2 Acquisition of other than commercial computer software and computer software documentation and associated rights. →
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.