Software Engineering Institute

Intellectual property (IP) is a critical consideration of most acquisitions that require sophisticated items or components and performance. Preparation of an intellectual property strategy is now a required element in Department of Defense acquisition guidance and major efforts such as Better Buying Power 2.0. The IP Strategy serves as a plan for competitive and affordable acquisition and sustainment of license rights in IP over the entire item or component lifecycle.

This report is intended to help program managers understand categories of IP, various IP challenges, and approaches to assessing the license rights that the program needs for long-term execution and sustainment. Developing a strategy for the entire product lifecycle to obtain specific rights can be a major challenge. The program manager must now prepare the IP Strategy early in the development lifecycle, prior to release of the solicitation, and update it prior to each milestone.