Space

Space is a dynamically developing and growing market whose importance for the national and international economic life continues to increase. It holds opportunities and challenges at the same time.

“Terrestrial economic life” is becoming more complex and technology is significantly proceeding. Outer space solutions are indispensable for maintaining a terrestrial overview. There has therefore been a paradigm shift and space sector has become an integral part of our everyday lives. It is impossible to imagine business, science, politics and society without satellites: satellite-based (and therefore secure) communication, the Internet of Things, navigation systems (e.g. Galileo), climate (change) monitoring (GMES) and natural disaster management, environmental protection, weather forecasting, smart farming, logistics, Industry 4.0, infrastructure monitoring and autonomous driving. Without satellites, our modern world would come to a standstill.

Space, especially its accessibility and exploration, is no longer reserved for states or gorvernment institutions. Rather, more and more private sector companies are pushing their business models into outer space to support space agencies in their projects or even undertake completely independent projects. These are not only the global players in the industry, but increasingly also small and medium-sized companies, which arise not least from an extremely fast-growing start-up scene (New Space). This creates competition and innovation. The barriers to entry into space are increasingly falling and numerous companies have group companies and joint venture holdings in the space sector.

To ensure that our clients are successful in the space sector, we take care of the legal issues. We are happy to assist in the areas of corporate, labour, export control, data protection, public procurement and regulatory law as well as in the areas of intellectual property and dispute resolution.

Intellectual Property / Know-how Protection

Space is closely linked to industrial (especially technical) property rights and copyright. In order to protect innovations and technologies here, know-how protection is of considerable importance. This applies both to the protection of know-how on earth and to the use of technologies in space. This already begins with cooperation in the area of research and development and the know-how should be protected in so-called R&D contracts. We support you in protecting your innovations and technologies as well as in enforcing your rights and against challenges by third parties.

An essential question here is to what extent property rights arise in space, in particular patent rights to innovations and technologies as well as copyrights, e.g. to satellite images, and under which legal systems these are protected both in space and on earth.

Corporate / M&A

Before a launcher with a satellite is launched into the intended orbit, there are some terrestrial corporate law issues involved in the preparation: Ideas and innovations are mostly created in the university sector. The development and commercialization of the resulting products (e.g. satellites and their accessories) then takes place in so-called university (private sector) spin-offs. In addition, several companies are usually involved in space projects, so that joint venture solutions are required. These necessary contracts under company law form the basis of the cooperation between the participants.

Regulatory, Public Procurement Law / Public Commercial Law

In the area of Regulatory, we support you with all legal issues that arise in the context of space projects: Approval and permit management (e.g. application for and allocation of satellite positions, frequencies and orbital positions, registration of satellite systems, approvals in the aviation sector), foreign trade law, export control and export (so-called dual-use goods and system-critical infrastructure) as well as environmental protection issues (e.g. disposal of space debris) and environmental, energy, urban and regional planning.

In addition, the space sector is in many cases dependent on the award of public contracts. Space-related procurements are carried out by the individual EU member states, the European Space Agency (ESA) and the EU. Procurement procedures related to space projects often exhibit a high degree of complexity. We support you in the preparation of applications to participate and bids as well as in the important preliminary work prior to a tender. In addition to our procurement law expertise, we also use our comprehensive technical know-how to support the entire bidding process in order to develop optimal solutions in a practical manner.

Data protection

Activities in space, whether they are research-related or commercial, always involve the creation and use of data that is collected in space but sent to Earth and analyzed there. This also involves the collection and use of personal data. We support you in the creation of concepts that comply with data protection law, in data protection impact assessments and in the creation of the necessary (processing) contracts and documentation.

Commercial / Transport / Logistics

We accompany the commercialization of your space-based innovations and technologies from the research and development stage through production to transport and logistics - e.g. in the areas of security of global goods traffic, control, distribution and tracking.