Protecting an Aerospace or Drone Programme: A Practitioner's Guide to Technical Data, Airworthiness, Export Control, and Suppliers
By Casey Scott McKay ·
This guide builds an intellectual property programme for an aerospace or uncrewed systems business, in the order the work has to be done. It starts with export classification, because that determination governs who may work on the technology and constrains every subsequent step, and then moves to the technical data package, which is the asset the certification barrier actually protects. It works through the filing decision in a sector where a twenty-year term is short against a fifty-year product life, the data rights assertions that must be made at proposal and marked on delivery, and the supplier agreements that allocate design authority, approval holdership, and tooling. It then addresses maintenance data licensing, airborne software assurance and escrow, and the imagery and collected-data questions that dominate drone programmes. It closes on the transaction file that every eventual buyer will ask for.
IP and Technology > Patent Counseling Transactions | Guide | Published 21 January 2025 - Updated 16 February 2025 | Casey Scott McKay - marksy.us
Summary. This guide builds an intellectual property programme for an aerospace or uncrewed systems business in the order the work has to be done: export classification first, because it governs who may work on the technology; then the technical data package, which is the asset the certification barrier actually protects; then the filing decision, the data rights assertions, and the supplier agreements that allocate design authority, approval holdership, and tooling. It addresses maintenance data licensing, airborne software assurance and escrow, and the imagery and collected-data questions that dominate drone programmes, and closes on the transaction file every eventual buyer will ask for.
Keywords: aerospace IP programme · technical data package · export classification · deemed export · foreign filing licence · data rights assertions · parts manufacturer approval · supplemental type certificate · supplier design authority · configuration control · maintenance data licensing · drone imagery rights · airborne software assurance · tooling recovery · obsolescence management
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