Ideas submitted through this portal that constitute trade secrets or other proprietary business information receive protection from public disclosure or unauthorized use under various Federal statutes and non-disclosure agreements. Particularly pertinent are the statutory protections and policies described below.

Information related to ideas submitted through this portal is deemed to be “submitted to the Department of Defense in a competitive or non-competitive process having the potential for resulting in the award” of an “other transaction” under 10 U.S.C. 2371 (including a prototype project under Public Law 103-160). Such information is protected from disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act (5 U.S.C. 552) for five years from the date the information is received by the Department of Defense.

The type of information protected is:

(1) A proposal, proposal abstract and supporting documents.

(2) A business plan submitted on a confidential basis.

(3) Technical information submitted on a confidential basis.

Written communications are submitted to the Department with an expectation that they will not be disclosed other than for purposes of assessment and evaluation.  If the character of the information described  within one of the three categories above is unclear, the submitter should state the character of the information that entitles it to protection. Verbal communications are included.

In addition to protection from compelled disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act, confidential business information submitted to the Department may be subject to other protections such as criminal sanctions against federal employees and others for unlawful disclosure of trade secrets and confidential business information (18 U.S.C. 1832 and 1905) and in a subsequent procurement process criminal sanctions against a “procurement official” for unlawful disclosure of bid or proposal information (41 U.S.C. 423).

Information submitted to the Department is generally not eligible for protection if it is already in the public domain or independently available to the Department from a source other than the submitter.