THE INDUSTRIAL BASE
MAY THE BEST BRAND WIN
Even when deciding between two brand names, acquisition personnel need to produce proof that one brand is superior to the other through market research.
elements in a J&A, in addition to any mission-specific reasons to support the one source authority:
Te brand name item or service must be “essential to the govern- ment’s requirements.”
Market research must indicate that other companies’ similar prod- ucts do not meet or cannot be modified to meet the government’s requirements.
Element 1—Essential to the government’s requirements.
“Essential” means indispensable, or something that is critical to sustain the life of something. Brand name items may be criti- cal, for example, to the operation of a certain military system to ensure human safety or the mission effectiveness of a system. Te need to procure a brand name item or service that is essential to the government’s requirements eliminates all other commercial
items or services from consideration—even commercial alterna- tives that may perform the same function.
Explaining why the particular brand name item or service is essen- tial to the government’s requirements is vital to support the brand name restriction in a J&A.
In April 2015, for example, the Navy’s request for quotations (RFQ) for brand name computer servers was challenged by a protest to the Government Accountability Office (GAO). Te protester claimed that the request’s brand-name requirement improperly restricted competition.
Te Navy’s J&A supporting the brand name restriction stated that the brand name computer servers were necessary because the serv- ers were an integral component of the Navy’s submarine network and the use of the brand name components throughout that system was essential to the government’s requirements. Because
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