Strong IP doesn’t solve interoperability and vendor lock issues- flexibility to encourage innovation is key

Shyam Sankar is the Chief Technology Officer of Palantir Technologies. Caitlin Dohrman is the Chief Executive Officer of Tangram Flex. Madeline Zimmerman is a Department of Defense Deployment Strategist at Palantir Technologies. THE MILITARY’S INSISTENCE ON OWNING COMMERCIAL INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY IS LIMITING INNOVATION; War On The Rocks;

As senior leaders at Palantir Technologies and Tangram Flex, software companies that do a great deal of business with the Defense Department, we have a direct interest in contracting outcomes. But we also bring a unique perspective that is formed by a cumulative 40 years of expertise working through the barriers of commercial software adoption by the U.S. government. Based on our experience, we believe that for the Department of Defense to vastly improve the speed and scale with which it acquires and fields emerging technology, it should rethink its current approach to intellectual property ownership. Specifically, the government should stop conflating intellectual property rights with vendor lock and interoperability. One does not solve for the other, and thus commercial companies should not have to forfeit their core intellectual property — namely patents, copyrights, trademarks, and trade secrets — in the name of interoperability. This approach can serve as a win-win for defense and industry by effectively addressing the root cause of interoperability and vendor lock issues, incentivizing commercial companies to provide their most innovative solutions to the government and boosting the expansion and health of America’s budding defense tech start-up ecosystem.