Business with ESA

The 2nd edition of the SME + Midcap Days, including the SME Forum, will take place at ESA Headquarters in Paris on 8–9 April 2024.

SMEs from ESA Member States, Associate States and Cooperating States are now invited to register to attend the in-person event.

On day 1, ESA representatives will share updates and information with the industrial community and will open the floor for discussions. In addition, a meeting between SMEs and Midcaps is foreseen.

This e-learning course contains the recordings and materials of the "IP and patents lecture series" that took place in November and December 2023.

Intellectual property and patents are strategic tools to be taken into consideration in business decision-making and strategy. In this nine-part series, specialists from the world of patents and IP introduce important concepts.

The following topics are covered in each session:

Join the online preparatory meetings for ESA's SME Forum 2024.

An interactive webinar with ESA's Industrial Ombudsman, Georges Bernède, will take place on 11 April 2024 at 10:00 CEST.

Join the webinar on Compliant PSS-A Forms for ESA Projects on 18 April 2024.

Webinar aimed at Financial Managers and Project Controllers of industrial entities, especially Small and Medium-sized Enterprises, wanting to work with ESA.

 

This lecture will consider how a patent can be enforced and what to do in the instance that it is. This is the sharp end of a patent’s lifetime and can sometimes be unavoidable when third party actors are involved.  We will also discuss the new Unitary Patent and Unified Patent Court as recent developments to patents in Europe.

 

This lecture will review the strategy behind when and how to disclose your invention alongside approaches to encourage and gather investment for smaller businesses. This lecture will look in depth at matters such as confidentiality agreements and how and when to use NDAs. Trade secrets are a little known form of intellectual property and will also be discussed.

 

In space, no one can hear you infringing. This lecture will review how patents, a territorial right, interact with an extra-terrestrial world.

With new developments being produced every day in the aerospace industry, how can your patents be best directed towards capturing third parties that may be interested in using your technology? We will discuss the relevant legal frameworks at play alongside the approach taken by some large aerospace businesses.