ABSTRACT
This chapter responds to a research question on the commercialisation of space posed by Lieberman and Koepping Athanasopoulos, “to what extent does the commercialisation of space activity require the re-examination of domestic, supranational and international space policy?” It considers supranational, European –specifically, European Union(EU) –space policy and intellectual property rights (IPRs) and presents initial findings of a study of IPRs in EU space policy over a four-decade period. The purpose of IPRs is to protect “applications of ideas and information that are of commercial value”. European space policy is framed by, both enabled and constrained, the provisions of the Treaty of Lisbon. The relationship between IPRs and technological non-dependence centres on capacity, that is, capacity to control access to and use of resources. It closes with the observation that the attainment of strategic autonomy and technological non-dependence requires direct engagement with the issue of IP and its related rights in recogniting of the impact and future commercialisation of space activity.
