Airbus Americas Seeks U.S. Tariff Exemption on Aircraft Parts Amid Upcoming Trade Deal Review and Industry Growth
In a recent letter to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, as reported by Mexico Business News, Airbus Americas CEO Robin Hayes warned that U.S. tariffs on aircraft parts...
Gogo Launches 5G Air-To-Ground Network, Amidst Legal Headwinds
Gogo Inc. (NASDAQ: GOGO) announced on December 29, 2025, that its 5G air-to-ground (ATG) connectivity network is ready to serve customers in North America. After successful completion of in-flight testing...
DARPA Announces “Lift Challenge,” Seeking Drone Designs With High Payload-To-Weight Ratios
DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) issued a challenge, the DARPA Lift Challenge, in October 2025 to develop novel drone designs that have greater payload-to-weight ratio. DARPA, which is the...
Boeing Completes Acquisition of Spirit Aerosystems With IP Divestiture
Boeing announced on December 8, 2025, that it had completed its acquisition of Spirit AeroSystems. The deal is valued at $4.7 billion, or $8.3 billion including the assumption of debt....
FAA Request for Information Related to a New Air Traffic Control Platform
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued a request for information (RFI) related to “a single, state-of-the art platform for air traffic control called the Common Automation Platform (CAP).” The CAP...
Vertical Aerospace Poised for Piloted Transition Amid Expanding eVTOL Market
Vertical Aerospace (NYSE: EVTL) achieved a milestone in its eVTOL (electric vertical take-off and landing vehicle) development. On November 13, 2025, the UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) granted Vertical a...
U.S. Government Aerospace Procurement Updates and Implications for Intellectual Property
The U.S. government has recently signaled changes for development and procurement of weapons and aerospace systems. The government has stressed moving faster in procurement and becoming more self-reliant in manufacturing...
Aerospace IP Strategy in View of Recent U.S. Patent Office Updates
Aerospace technology companies often decide between patenting an innovation or keeping it as a trade secret. Typically, the analysis involves comparing the potential strength of patent protection that is likely...
Furthering Industry Consolidation, Archer Aviation Is Acquiring Lilium’s Patent Portfolio
Competition in the Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) industry has been fierce and has led to recent consolidation. Some of the remaining companies include Joby Aviation, Wisk Aero, Wanfeng, and Archer...
Space Force Announces “Maneuverable GEO” Satellite Competition
The U.S. Space Force is planning a competition for commercial maneuverable satellites to support the military’s Maneuverable Geosynchronous (GEO) program. The Maneuverable GEO program reportedly seeks to partner with a...
FCC Launches “Space Month” to Boost U.S. Space Economy
On October 6, 2025, FCC Chairman Brendan Carr declared October 2025 “Space Month” in an effort “to boost our country’s space economy.” The FCC’s stated goal for Space Month “is...
U.S. Space Force Announces Operational Acceptance of ATLAS
The U.S. Space Force achieved a milestone for Space Domain Awareness (SDA) on September 30th by announcing that the Space Force has operationally accepted the Advanced Tracking and Launch Analysis...
NASA’s Breakthrough Superalloy Wins Commercial Invention of the Year
NASA Glenn Research Center’s new material, GRX-810, has been recognized as the Commercial Invention of the Year by NASA’s Inventions and Contributions Board. GRX-810 is a three-dimensionally (3D) printable oxide dispersion strengthened (ODS)...
Startups, Trade Secrets, and Aerospace: Ninth Circuit Restores $81.2m Verdict in Zunum-Boeing Lawsuit
On August 14, 2025, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously overturned the lower court’s decision and restored the $81.2 million damages award in a dispute between The Boeing Co....
FAA Launches Pilot Program to Accelerate Electric Air Taxis
On September 12, 2025, U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy announced a new pilot program within the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to speed up the rollout of advanced air mobility...
Protecting Inventions for In-Space Manufacturing – How the Space Act and Patent Claim Strategy Can Help
As the larger aerospace industry continues to grow, space technology companies are pursuing innovations for in-space manufacturing. This technology includes producing and/or assembling structures or other items in orbit, or...
New 3D-Printable Titanium Alloy to Combat Climate Change
Pure titanium and titanium alloys, including Ti-6Al-4V, are used in aerospace applications for forming airframes and engine parts because of their light weight, high strength, and resistance to corrosion. However,...
Firefly Aerospace Soars in $6.3 Billion IPO as Space Tech Investment Accelerates
Firefly Aerospace, Inc. (NASDAQ: FLY) completed one of 2025’s largest space technology initial public offerings (IPO) on August 7, 2025. Firefly priced its shares at $45 and closed its first...
3-2-1 Blast Off: US Space Force Trademark Dispute Aims for the Supreme Court
The trademark attorney Thomas D. Foster has found himself in ongoing legal star wars to register US SPACE FORCE as his personal trademark covering coins, jewelry, watches, license plate holders,...
Proposed FAA Rule to Allow Drone Operations Beyond Visual Line of Sight
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and Transportation Security Administration (TSA) on August 7, 2025, issued a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) related to “drones.” The notice proposes regulations to enable...
A Launchpad for Startups in the Space Domain: Apollo Accelerator
In 2023, the U.S. Space Force launched the Space Domain Awareness (SDA) Tools, Application, & Processing (TAP) Lab. The SDA TAP Lab aims to accelerate the delivery of space battle...
