Regular readers know that an on-going feature involves examining press releases issued by companies after they have registered their company with the Directorate of Defense Trade Controls (“DDTC”) as required under Part 122 of the International Traffic in Arms Regulations. All of these press releases seems to be punched out from the same template and routinely overstate the significance of DDTC registration. Many of these releases, like this one, go so far as to imply that registration constitutes a certification by DDTC that the company has adequate ITAR compliance provisions, as if the registrants had taken and passed a test rather than just sending in the registration fee.

So it is only fair that a company press release on its ITAR registration that, for once, tries to provide an accurate description of the significance of registration should be awarded. And for that very purpose Export Law Blog has created the Reggie Award.

And the first Reggie Award goes to . . .

. . .Envelope please. . .

Prototron Circuits for this press release

Now, with Redmond’s registration in place, we can participate in immediate demand from existing customers on ITAR designs that we previously could not service … . This now allows us to increase our value to our present customer base while increasing our value to prospective customers. …

The award committee noted that this statement in the press release showed a keen understanding that registration was required to manufacture defense articles and was not some optional certificate that the manufacturer obtained after its compliance procedures were reviewed and approved by DDTC. The committee expressed some discomfort with the company’s reference to having “achieved” registration, but felt that this was overcome by the clear acknowledgment of the purpose and benefit of the registration requirement.

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