Anthony L. Velocci, Jr. writes in a recent article for Aviation Week that thousands of entrepreneurial companies are flourishing across the aerospace industry worldwide. They are “vibrant source[s] of innovation and value-creation” given their “wealth of specialized skills, cutting-edge intellectual property, highly educated workforces, relationships with government officials and large aerospace customers, and, in many cases, valuable security clearances.”
“Small companies are an incredibly rich source of innovation,” Velocci quotes Charles Wessner as saying. Dr. Wessner, the director of Technology, Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the National Academy of Sciences, goes on to say “[t]hat is where big technology companies come from, and that is where the big companies go for innovative ideas.”

Indeed, according to Velocci, while large players in the industry obviously dominate the field, the smaller companies are well positioned in light of their superior agility, commitment to “driving ideas forward,” and ability to “adapt to changes in market conditions much quicker than large corporations.” particularly those in component and small subsystem development.

Technologies and tools for intellectual property management are increasingly critical to the success of any innovation-driven organization