Legal Protection of Intellectual Property in the Implementation of International Space Activities

Abstract

Despite a widespread development of global spaces, which include the outer space, the existing international agreements have not overcome the territorial principle of intellectual property protection. Legal conflicts may arise when intellectual rights are considered from the point of view of their implementation in outer space, where filing claims to sovereignty is limited. Intellectual property rights protection may formally conflict with the fundamental principles of international space law. In particular, the implementation of the territorial principle of intellectual property protection in outer space faces limitations caused by European integration processes (for example, the principle of order of precedence). Regional and bilateral cooperation of States, within the framework of which issues of accounting, evaluation, use, distribution of intellectual property rights, as well as the claim of appropriate protection, are regulated, is the main vector of regulation of intellectual property protection in outer space. Joint project activities that lead to the creation of the results of intellectual activity, in this case, can be regulated in the agreements between the participants, in instruments of a different kind, for example, in plans for the evaluation and the use of results of intellectual work, in compliance with the applicable international law rules. It seems necessary to develop uniform methods of assessment, accounting for the contribution of participants in joint activities in creation of intellectual property objects, distribution of exclusive rights. In this context, it is advisable to provide at the international and national levels the possibility of allocating a share in the exclusive right to an intellectual property object. The extraterritorial potential of regulating relations in the field of intellectual property protection in outer space allows us to talk about the possibility of developing and using the conventional «international regime» of intellectual property protection, which at this stage of development could be expressed in the universal nature, mutual recognition and cross-border use of intellectual rights — at least for joint results of intellectual activity created during the development of outer space.