The U.S. State Department’s DDTC (Directorate of Defense Trade Controls) has finally joined the green revolution. Whether this move should be construed as the State Department’s support of a healthier planet, an attempt to limit the potential for loss of sensitive documents, or an effort to deprive the legal community of its paper obsession, we may never know. What we can be sure of is that beginning September 1, 2010, DDTC’s licensing division will no longer accept certain unclassified paper agreements.
Technical Assistance Agreements, Manufacturing License Agreements, Warehouse Distribution Agreements, and major amendments thereto, as of September 1, 2010, must be submitted through use of the form DSP-5 via D-Trade 2. For those of you unfamiliar with the requirements for electronically submitted TAAs, MLAs, and WDAs, rest assured your government has an answer for you: stop by the DDTC Agreement Guidelines Section and check out the third PDF. It will provide you with a little light reading (165 pages) covering everything you need to know about electronically filing these agreements.