Analysis of Patent Protection in Commercial Aerospace Cooperation

Commercial space activities are closely related to national politics,economy,and military. Due to the factors such as national security and economic benefits,most countries are actively developing commercial aerospace.In recent years,with the rapid development of private space companies such as SpaceX Corporation and Blue Origin Company,the cost of commercial space launch has been greatly reduced,which has had a huge effect on the existed international commercial market. Patent is the product of market competition. It is an effective means for international first-class companies to gain a competitive initiative and occupy the market superiority through protecting their intellectual property rights by patents during commercial space cooperation. At present,most of China aerospace enterprises are derived from national defense military units. Patents of national defense military units are the results of intellectual labor,which are characterized by their proprietary,temporal,and regional characteristics. However,due to the characteristics of national defense services,military monopoly,and group nature of property rights,the patent protection of defense units is different from that of ordinary enterprises. The problem of intellectual property protection in commercial space cooperation is more complicated. Therefore,in the fierce competition of international commercial aerospace,how China space companies can use patents to enhance their international competitiveness in commercial space cooperation is worthy of thinking and planning in advance. By analyzing the patent protection strategies and typical cases adopted by domestic and foreign aerospace companies in commercial space cooperation,it is expected to provide a reference for China space enterprises to effectively use patent strategies in commercial and space cooperation and to enhance China commercial aerospace competitiveness.