Clauses · FAR · Data rights
FAR 52.227-19 Commercial Computer Software License
Does the regulation require it to flow down?
No
The clause has only paragraphs (a), (b) and (c) and contains no subcontract insertion paragraph; 27.409(g) and 27.405-3 prescribe none. Paragraph (b)(2)(v) lets the GOVERNMENT disclose the software to, and reproduce it for, its support service contractors and their subcontractors under the same restrictions — that is a Government-side right, not a flow-down obligation on you. FAR 27.405-3(c) handles the supply-chain case differently: where a prime holding 52.227-14 with Alternate III acquires restricted computer software from a subcontractor at any tier as a separate acquisition, the CO may approve additions to or limitations on the restricted rights through a collateral agreement incorporated in the contract — not by inserting 52.227-19. Primes flow it down anyway because it is the only ready-made text defining what license the Government gets in software arriving through the chain: Lockheed CORPDOC 2A, L3Harris LGL-50.F1, GDMS SCM-TMP-005 and -095, Raytheon TC-002 and CACI's matrix all list it, and the executed LMI/Applied DNA subcontract instead demands a signed 'Commercial Restrictions List' in the 252.227-7017(d) format citing 52.227-19 and DFARS 252.227-7017 together.
A clause can reach your subcontract without a mandate. Once it is in your document, it is a contract term all the same. The missing mandate is a fact about the regulation. It is not a ruling on your order.
Checked against acquisition.gov on 2026-08-05 · edition DEC 2007 (no alternates) · base v0.9.3 Read the text ↗
What it makes you produce
One item for your checklist.
Something you write
Days to weeks, and nobody outside your company has to agree to it.
- 52.227-19(c)
The restricted rights notice the clause dictates, affixed to the copy delivered and naming the contract number
Owed when you deliver a copy of the commercial software under the order
When it is used
Discretionary, not mandatory. FAR 27.409(g): 'when contracting (other than from GSA's Multiple Award Schedule contracts) for the acquisition of commercial computer software, the contracting officer MAY insert the clause at 52.227-19' — and in any event must assure the contract contains terms giving the Government sufficient rights consistent with 27.405-3. FAR 27.405-3(a) is the policy: no clause is required, 12.212 directs that commercial computer software be acquired under the licenses customarily provided to the public, and 52.227-19 is the fallback the CO reaches for when it is uncertain that the customary license meets the need or is consistent with Federal law. Never used on GSA Multiple Award Schedule orders. No dollar threshold. L3Harris states the condition correctly in LGL-50.F1 (Feb 2026): 'applies to the acquisition of commercial computer software'.
Read closely
Paragraph (a) overrides your standard commercial license terms for the Government's purposes, and (b)(2) lists what it may then do — including copying for a backup machine and disclosing to its support contractors under the same restrictions. Where the two conflict this clause wins, so the Government's rights are (b)(2)'s rather than your own end-user terms'.
The 5 templates that name it, with the line
Source: acquisition.gov, FAR 52.227-19, FAR 27.409(g) and FAR 27.405-3 (verified 2026-08-05); RFO Part 27 model text at acquisition.gov/far-overhaul/far-part-deviation-guide/far-overhaul-part-27 and DoD class deviation 2026-O0036 (verified 2026-08-05)
This is research, not legal advice. It states what the regulation says about this clause and cites the paragraph behind it. It does not rule on your order, and it does not rule on whether a prime's markings are correct.