INTERSECTION OF U.S. PATENTS AND SPACE LAW – HOW INFRINGEMENT EXISTS AMONG THE STARS

With the recent proliferation of the commercialization of space, private entities are beginning to race towards the sky. Increased use of privatized money in space has greatly increased the probability of intellectual property used outside the bounds of the United States on the terrestrial Earth. Current literature has analyzed certain aspects of international space treaties but very few have proposed solutions to combatting space travel. Current literature has not proposed any solutions to the current evolution and explosion of space travel. This paper reviews the past historical analysis from previous authors, looks forward to the proliferation of privatized space travel, and tests a variety of issues coming to the future. This paper proposes a novel framework to determine what constitutes the territory of the United States for the purposes of patent infringement. This paper is broken up into four parts: Part I details the history of patent inventorship within the United States. Additionally, this part outlines the history of space exploration, certain space treaties the United States abides by, and defines characteristics associated with developing the space programs within the United States. Part II explores the United States’ jurisprudence with federal causes of action and patent infringement. Additionally, this part briefly explores international treaties the United States abides by and details the criticism of utilizing those treaties as a framework for outer space law in the context of patent infringement in outer space. Part III details solutions to bringing forth domestic causes of action for outer space patent infringement which were discussed in part II