(Editor’s Note.  The following demonstrates the advantage of a determination that the contractor paid for its own research and development effort.)

KSD protested a sole-source award to McDonnell Douglas Helicopter (MDHC) for strap assemblies.  The court stated the agency was correct in awarding a sole-source award because the assembly was developed at MDHC’s expense and thus the government did not own and could not distribute MDHC’s proprietary data to KSD or any other party to conduct a competitive procurement.  The Court ruled that KSD failed to present any evidence supporting its allegation that the government had funded MDHC’s research, testing or design of the assembly.  It indicated that much of the costs related to developing the assembly were included in its independent research and development funding which is considered to be development at “private expense.”  The Court added there was no indication the government had directly paid MDHC or its research nor had acquired rights to the assembly in any other way (KSD Inc. v US, Fed.Cl. No. 05-1229C).  

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