Legislative Action for the Protection DoD Intellectual Property and Simulation of the Innovation Ecosystem

This capstone seeks to address the primary research question of, How can antiquated legislation be addressed and adapted to support the challenges of innovation warfare? Adversaries such as the People's Republic of China have studied the United States and developed methods for undermining existing U.S. civil-military architecture and legislation. Rightly so, the National Security Council and Department of Defense (DOD) recognize this threat - and the need to respond to it in new and dynamic ways - in their overarching strategies. Both the National Security Strategy (NSS) and the National Defense Strategy (NDS) state the need for the adoption of innovative tools and practices necessary to outpace near-peer competitors, and yet there has been no significant shift in underlying architecture to shape true change to that end. The DOD innovation and acquisition system remains over-inundated, complex, and mired in intellectual property law. This research proposes that senior DOD and Congressional leaders use the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) to 1) leverage existing intellectual property law to stimulate the innovation ecosystem and 2) drive a Congressionally directed response for the development of an intellectual property strategy that is aligned with the end states outlined in the NSS and NDS.