A contractor doing business with the government needs to exercise considerable care to assure it does not grant an "unlimited rights" license to the government for its technology or other assets. Such a license could entitle the government to give the design - either in the form of technical data or computer software code - to other companies and to authorize those companies to copy and sell the product illustrated in the data or code to any customer, anywhere. On the other hand, a contractor that developed its intellectual property at private expense or, to some degree, not at government or public expense can protect it (see GCA DIGEST Vol. 2 No. 1 on Primer of Intellectual Property). The company's policies related to protecting its intellectual property and the status of its intellectual property, especially if the seller's proprietary technology accounts for a significant share of its value, needs to be examined during a due diligence.

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