EADS ETL
16 July 2010
The EADS Technology Licensing initiative’s mid-year review has reconfirmed the commitment to marketing intellectual property from throughout the company, and included the decision to create a core team that will further strengthen the coordination among its divisions and business units.
During the meeting today, held at EADS’ German corporate headquarters in Ottobrunn, company representatives reviewed key technologies that have attracted the most interest in the aerospace, wind business and automotive sectors – which are the three areas of current focus for the EADS Technology Licensing initiative.
They include the Vacuum Assisted Process (VAP®) for highly efficient production of fibre-reinforced plastic components, and the Avionics Full-Duplex Switched Ethernet (AFDX®), which is a high-quality data network standard.
Attending the EADS Technology Licensing initiative’s mid-year review meeting were intellectual property representatives from EADS companies and business units.
Wulf Hoeflich, the Chief Intellectual Property Officer for EADS and leader of the EADS Technology Licensing initiative, said the company’s intellectual property marketing efforts are now widely recognised – both externally and internally – since last year’s launch of these efforts as a coordinated company-wide programme.
“From the external point of view, we are seeing that our industrial business partners and new potential customers appreciate the real shift in EADS’ mindset for its intellectual property licensing,” Hoeflich said. “Within EADS, our colleagues are recognising its value to the company’s overall business in the long term, and the value we can provide through a real integrated approach.”
He added that the integrated strategy at EADS provides a significant value-added element to the Technology Licensing initiative, as it enables the company to provide “clusters” of technologies that benefit from capabilities throughout the company.
EADS CEO Louis Gallois (at right) is introduced to attendees at the mid-year review meeting by Wulf Hoeflich, the Chief Intellectual Property Officer for EADS and leader of the EADS Technology Licensing initiative.
“Our discussions regularly confirm that the customers would rather have a full package of technology solutions, rather than having to put the bits and pieces together themselves,” Hoeflich explained.
Another “lesson learned” is the attractiveness of EADS technologies that can be quickly implemented by customers.
“We have seen this in the wind turbine business, for example, where the development cycle is significantly different than we are used to in the aerospace sector,” he said. “Our potential customers are not thinking in months for the development cycle, not decades. We understand this, realizing that some of our technologies may be over-engineered for their applications. Therefore, we will need to review our portfolio, introducing a streamlining to be more ‘digestible.’”
A major step taken at today’s mid-year review meeting was the decision to create a dedicated team within EADS to assist in company-side coordination for the EADS Technology Licensing initiative. This team will have representatives from various functions, including finance, marketing, engineering, and intellectual property.
“The business of technology licensing by a company such as EADS requires a multifunctional setup,” Hoeflich said. “This is recognised within the divisions, and our new core team will provide the interface that will allow us to take our efforts to the next level.”
Concluding today’s meeting was a visit by EADS CEO Louis Gallois and Chief Technical Officer Jean Botti, underscoring the highest-level management support for the EADS Technology Licensing initiative.
