US-based Archer Aviation has acquired former-eVTOL developer Lilium’s portfolio of 300 patents for €18 mllion (US$21 million) after a competitive bid process.
The patents include designs relating to high-voltage systems, battery management, advanced aircraft design, flight controls, electric engines, propellers, and ducted fans.
Germany-based Lilium shut down in February after management had spent several months attempting to raise funds to continue operations. The company, which was founded in 2015 and employed 1,000 people at its peak, was scaling up operations and preparing for the first full-scale flight tests of its Jet eVTOL when it ran out of money.
Ducted fan technology
Lilium’s battery-electric eVTOL design used a novel and proprietary distributed ducted fan propulsion system built into the aircraft’s wing. According to Archer, Lilium had spent around US$1.5 billion on R&D before it went bust.
Archer described the IP as “the leading patent portfolio on ducted fan technology in the world” and hinted in a press release that the technology may have applications in smaller, so-called personal eVTOLs, as well as the regional markets that Lilium had been targeting.
“Lilium’s pioneering work advanced the frontier of eVTOL design and technology, and we’re excited to bring their technologies into the fold at Archer as we advance our product roadmap,” said Adam Goldstein, founder and CEO of Archer.
Archer’s legal background with IP
Archer, which is in the advanced stages of testing its five-seater, 100 mile (160km) range Midnight eVTOL, is a company that will understand the importance of intellectual property after becoming embroiled in a legal case with Boeing-backed competitor Wisk in 2021 over alleged theft of design elements, trade secrets and test data.
After two years of legal wrangling, the two companies reached an out-of-court settlement that includes integrating Wisk’s autonomous technology into Archer’s eVTOL in the future.
