Our Joint Managing Partner and Head of Tech, Andrew Katz will speak at the European Space Agency’s fourth edition of Φ-week, taking place from 11-15 October 2021.

About the Event

The week long virtual event focuses on how to accelerate the future of Earth Observation (EO), presenting recent developments in EO Open Science and latest trends in EO markets, exploring bold and transformative ideas that ESA’s Φ-lab and Data Applications Division supports and scales up along with researchers, start-ups, industry and private investors.

The main theme of Φ-week 2021 is the New Space economy and associated innovations. The sessions, posters and side-events will highlight how the New Space economy is developing in Europe and alongside competition worldwide, and how it can contribute to the EU Green Deal, Digital Europe Programme, Destination Earth initiative, UN SDGs, and in general to the EU Space Strategy and European space sector. 

Andrew Katz Interview

At the event, Andrew is participating in the session on: ‘Creating Value and Trust in the New Space Ecosystem: Intellectual Property (IP) Rights, Digital Asset Ownership and New Technologies in the IP Sector’ on Monday 11 October, 17:30-19:00.

Chaired by Dr Michaela MacDonald, Andrew’s talk will provide an insight into the evaluation and due diligence process from the position of a prospective investor, especially with regards to the current practices, strategies, and expectations. This serves as an opportunity for the investor to understand the value of the business and how it is aligned with the overall IP strategy, which is crucial for commercial exploitation and future growth. 

During the talk, Dr Michaela MacDonald and Andrew will discuss how to successfully implement policies, practices and procedures which have been developed by the target organisation around the development and deployment of software and data-based products and services, drawing inspiration from the wider open source and open data communities as their practices apply to the EO sector.

About Andrew Katz

Andrew is a qualified solicitor practising in England and heads the tech team at boutique corporate law firm Moorcrofts LLP near London. A former software developer, he now specialises in software licensing (particularly open source software) and regularly advises organisations on open source software, hardware and data. He works with his corporate team to prepare tech companies for sale and guide both tech businesses and VC funds through the due diligence process. As well as advising businesses, investors and academia, he has also worked with CERN, the UN and WIPO on open source licensing and strategy and co-authored the recently released European Commission report on the impact of open source software and hardware on technological independence, competitiveness and innovation in the EU economy. 

Reserve your Place

Φ-week is a free-to-attend virtual event for the public and in person for invited speakers. To find out more information and to register to attend, visit: https://phiweek.esa.int