Henry Fradkin
Value Extraction LLC, Principal, Dearborn, MI, USA

Allen Vaughn
Lockheed Martin Manager, IP Strategy & Licensing, Dallas, TX, USA

The Aerospace and Transportation Committee of LES (USA & Canada) was founded in 1998 to provide member companies an opportunity to network and exchange best practices for those involved heavily in manufacturing goods and products. As such, members have found their Committee to be valuable in enhancing their own licensing and technology commercialization efforts. To that end, the Committee has been conducting monthly teleconferences to provide a forum for discussing current opportunities and challenges outside of scheduled LES meetings.

The purpose of this article is to present the findings of a survey conducted among the aerospace members dealing with how these companies provide incentives and rewards to their employees for innovations and appropriate IP protection. This need to understand such incentives was a topic at several teleconferences, and the members agreed that a survey to lay out various practices could provide an important learning tool for not for this Committee, but perhaps for companies in other industries.