Intellectual Property laws bring 3D Printed Rockets down to earth

Relativity Space’s 3D-printed Terran 1 was first flight of a mainly 3D-printed booster. A revolution because 3D printing accelerates trial-and-error development. Every build of structural hardware is iterative so rapid prototyping is achieved as multiple components are printed as one unified part. In-house. In days. Build flexibility moves from physical to digital.

Despite the anomaly the flight was a success, surviving structural loads on launch. The integrity of the 3D printed vehicle wasn’t an issue. But how does the law approach 3D printing of space hardware?

Suppose you’ve designed an igniter system for a thrust chamber assembly.

In common with all sub system development, the law should protect commercial innovation to preserve your value against infringement by competitors also using 3D printing processes to produce similar designs.

However, your component just uses CAD software. The 3D design is uploaded to the printer, which prints it – perhaps heating powdered metal to solidify the igniter system into the desired shape. But the design is only a computer file which can easily be reproduced and disseminated electronically across borders.

You have intellectual property rights which need closer inspection.

Copyright? Yes, in many aspects of your development work, written specifications, build manuals – but as far as the design, only if the design is an artistic work – probably unlikely for part of a thrust chamber.

What about unregistered design right? Yes only for 15 years – worth having since it’s unlikely, given the current pace of advancement in space technology, that your technology will have the same commercial value by 2038 anyway.

Then there is registered design right. It protects the appearance of the whole or a part of the igniter system design – but it’s difficult to enforce where even minor changes are made to your system design, so protecting against copies of your igniter adapted by someone also using 3D printing might not be straightforward. Your suite of legal protection includes trade secret. It’s your technical experience and knowledge that enabled you to create the igniter using 3D printing. Simply because it may not be obvious to others how a 3D printed igniter component is created. It could be difficult

to reverse-engineer the details of the manufacturing processes that led to it. The parts to your system might require support structures to prevent them from collapsing during production – and so can’t be directly 3D printed by others. Perhaps the orientation the complex component should be printed in, and in how many parts, might also not be obvious.

Therefore, keep your key know-how confidential when using 3D printing techniques. You’ll likely use NDA’s anyway. Don’t underestimate trade secret as a constituent part of your space industry value.