Official U.S. government information about the
Global Positioning System (GPS) and related topics
Joint United Kingdom–United States Statement Regarding Global Positioning System (GPS) Intellectual Property
January 17, 2013
The Governments of the United Kingdom and the United States of America today announced that they had reached a common understanding of intellectual property rights related to the Global Positioning System (GPS) and will work together to address broader global navigation satellite systems' intellectual property issues.
This understanding is part of a broader shared effort to advance compatibility and interoperability among civil satellite navigation systems and transparency in civil service provision. The two governments affirmed their joint commitment to ensuring that GPS civil signals will remain perpetually free and openly available for users worldwide. As part of this effort, the UK is dedicating all government held patents and patent applications relating to U.S. GPS civil signal designs and their broadcast from GPS and other global navigation satellite systems to the public domain. The UK has committed to not pursue or assert intellectual property rights over any aspect of these signals, now or in the future.
Referring to the agreement reached, UK Defence Minister for Equipment, Support and Technology Phillip Dunne said: "I am pleased to welcome this new addition to our already close and wide ranging space relationship with the United States. Our joint approach to providing this intellectual property free to end users underpins the central role GPS plays not just in defence operations but also in wider civil applications and civil resilience."
Speaking about the cooperative dialogue between the two nations that led to this agreement, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs Dr. Kerri-Ann Jones stated: "Our discussions on this subject have highlighted our shared interest in deepening our technical partnership and addressing complex issues together. I am especially pleased that we have developed an approach to our technical partnership that will help our private sectors continue to innovate and develop new applications that bring benefit to the people of both countries."
The United Kingdom and the United States will now engage in follow-on discussions to ensure that the policy and approaches of our two governments are well-coordinated, and to provide a basis for even deeper U.S.-UK space cooperation across a range of civil and defence-related challenges and opportunities.
