Supporting innovation with Aerospace Cornwall
Taking IP protection to new heights
AeroSpace Cornwall is a programme promoting research, development and innovation, enabling businesses across Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly to take their ideas and turn them into viable products ready to market in the space and aerospace sectors.
AeroSpace Cornwall can support businesses in developing a new product, service or technology in a number of ways, including through the provision of fully funded space, aerospace or digital sector specialists, experts in investment, and legal or intellectual property advisors to mentor and support businesses in developing their product, service or technology
The mission
Several of the businesses that AeroSpace Cornwall work with identified a need for specialist legal advice, as they had reached a stage where the protection of their work was crucial.
The future commercialisation of their hard work could entail collaborations with much larger organisations to develop and sell products and services into the space and aerospace market. If the commercial and legal considerations of these collaborations are not effectively addressed at the start of the relationship, these businesses could find themselves locked out of their own original projects.
AeroSpace Cornwall decided to take action to help these businesses to protect and commercialise the intellectual property rights (IP) generated prior and throughout their activities.
As legal experts in the IP field who are also embedded in the space and aerospace sectors, Foot Anstey were commissioned by AeroSpace Cornwall to support a number of businesses with legal advice in relation to their ongoing intellectual property issues.
The crew
Our commercial and intellectual property team was led by Annalisa Checchi, with support from IP specialist John Shaw and others across the wider team at Foot Anstey.
The solution
Annalisa and John took the view that in order to support these businesses, they really needed to understand not just the products created but how the businesses operate, their goals, aspirations and the challenges facing them. When meeting each new business for the first time, Annalisa and John provided a “legal health-check”, working with each business to understand other risks and opportunities that can be managed, as well as ensuring that their IP is protected. This has led to us providing wider commercial support including contract reviews and advice around NDAs.
We used our specialist space and aerospace sector knowledge to give relevant context to our advice, providing a bespoke strategy for each business.
Foot Anstey
The result
Feedback from the team at AeroSpace Cornwall and the businesses that we are supporting has been universally positive and the businesses have been able to take their product or service to market safe in the knowledge that they have the appropriate legal protections in place.