In September 2018, the Ministry of the Armed Forces initiated the creation of theDefense Innovation Agency. The aim of this new institution is to foster innovation in the defense sector by opening up to the outside world, particularly the private sector, with visibility in Europe and internationally.
Innovating in defense
This agency, which reports to the Direction Générale de l’Armement, is tasked with innovating in scientific and technical research for the benefit of the French armed forces. It’s a bit like a French “Darpa”. For the record, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) explores the use of new technologies for military purposes, at an upstream stage known as advanced research.
The IDA’s objective is to be an agency capable of “federating and driving all innovation efforts “, but also “resolutely open to the civil economy, start-ups, cooperative ventures and Europe”.
But is it so easy to talk about innovation in the defense sector and opening up to the civilian sector at the same time?
YesMyPatent.com from industrial property consultants Touroude & Associates helps the French Gendarmerie protect its inventions.
Innovation and national defense
In the field of innovation, the procedures for protecting industrial property involve disclosing inventions. In all cases, a patented invention is published. In return for this disclosure, the patent holder has a 20-year monopoly on the exploitation of the invention, against payment of maintenance annuities. At the end of this period, the patent falls into the public domain.
But in the case of defense-related inventions, the question of publication of the invention on databases accessible to all, such as Google Patents, can pose a problem. For this reason, each patent application filed withINPI is first sent to the Industrial Property Office (BPI) of the French Defence Procurement Agency (DGA) for verification. When an invention is likely to be reused by malicious parties, and/or creates a risk to national defense, the DGA’s BPI can intervene to place the patent in secret. Such secrecy is renewable every year, but can be lifted at any time if the risk has disappeared.
Unfortunately for all high-tech defense enthusiasts, it’s highly likely that we won’t be aware of all the inventions coming out of the new Defense Innovation Agency and its future partnerships, for example with start-ups, and that many of these inventions will never be patented and will be subject to secrecy.
The implementation of the Defense Innovation Agency from September 1, 2018 saw the appointment ofEmmanuel Chiva as director, following consultation between Florence Parly, Minister of the Armed Forces, and Joël Barre, Délégué général pour l’armement. Emmanuel Chiva holds a doctorate in biomathematics, specializing in artificial intelligence, complex systems and biomimicry, and is a graduate of the École Normale Supérieure. Prior to his appointment as Director of the Defense Innovation Agency, he was in charge of development at Agueris, a company that produces operational simulations for weapons systems training. His blog, which is widely followed in the field, makes him a recognized expert on these issues of high-tech innovation for defense.
