Relativity Space is a Long Beach, California, launch company founded in 2015 that set out to 3D print rockets. Its first vehicle, Terran 1, was more than 80 percent 3D printed and reached space in March 2023, the largest 3D-printed object ever launched. The company is now focused on Terran R, a reusable medium-to-heavy-lift rocket with more than $3 billion in pre-sold launch contracts, and has been led since 2025 by former Google CEO Eric Schmidt.
Bridget Smith is Assistant General Counsel and Director of IP at Relativity Space, where she leads everything from patents and trade secrets to open source, trademarks, and brand. She spent 16 years in private practice before going in-house, as a partner at Knobbe Martens, where she co-chaired the Patent Office Trials practice and handled more than 150 AIA trials, and at Lowenstein & Weatherwax. Before law she was a process and software engineer at Motorola Semiconductor and a data scientist at a software startup later acquired by SAP. She holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in chemical engineering from Case Western Reserve University and a JD from Arizona State University, and co-chairs the Orange County chapter of ChIPs.
Bridget Smith sums up her job as being a trusted advisor in IP, which means leading everything from open source and patents to trade secrets, trademarks, and brands for “all the cool smart things that our engineers bring to the table.” “Cool and smart” might be an understatement, since Relativity doesn’t just build rockets. It 3D prints them. As a startup on the cutting edge of additive manufacturing, its first rocket, Terran 1, was over 80 percent 3D printed. Launched in March 2023, it was the biggest 3D-printed object ever to leave Earth and reach space.
How the partner track prepared Bridget for startup leadership
Getting to lead IP at a startup was Bridget’s sole inspiration for going to law school. Originally a semiconductor engineer, it was “game over” when she joined a startup and saw the value a good IP lawyer could bring. “This is what I want to do for the rest of my life,” Bridget knew, but it would be another 16 years before her dream came true. As a first-generation attorney, Bridget didn’t realize how rare the opportunity to lead IP for a company is. So when it came, “I just grabbed it,” she says. “It was everything I ever wanted to do in life, the culmination of my professional aspirations.”
Bridget by no means regrets her years in private practice, because they gave her her entrepreneurialism. “That relentless ownership mindset you need to learn as an associate and have as a partner rolls over so well when you work for a startup,” she explains. To Bridget, thinking like an owner means constantly seeking growth (being willing to experiment, make mistakes, learn, and iterate) and constantly asking how she can be of service to her clients and employees. She thinks of herself as the CEO of the IP business within Relativity Space’s business, and “relentless ownership” is the defining trait she looks for when hiring.
That relentless ownership mindset you need to learn as an associate and have as a partner rolls over so well when you work for a startup.
For those considering a move from private practice to a startup, Bridget believes you don’t have to wait: “As long as you have the spirit of adventure, curiosity, and the eagerness to solve hard problems, you’ll thrive.” At the same time, she is candid that it’s a big change: “I thought I’d seen it all at that point, that there was absolutely no IP issue I hadn’t tackled. But I hadn’t seen anything! Going in-house was not easy at all. It gives you a very different set of problems that you’re unlikely to encounter in private practice.”
IP in the space industry, and a trade secrets program unlike any other
The capital costs of being a startup in the space industry are “enormous,” and that shapes Relativity Space’s IP strategy. Painting the picture, Bridget quoted Carl Sagan: “If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe.” Before Relativity could launch a rocket, it had to build an entire rocket factory. Because the business is so capital intensive, every patent decision is scrutinized heavily. Bridget characterizes the question as, “Is this patent of service to my company? Or will the money be better spent toward the ultimate goal of getting that rocket up?” If you’re part of a team that gets to engage in speculative patenting, consider Bridget envious.
Instead of relying on patents alone, Relativity Space makes heavy use of trade secrets, a common practice in the space industry. Trade secrets are one of Bridget’s favorite parts of the job, and it shows. Two aspects of her program stand out as instructive, especially as non-competes fade and trade secrets become more important in every industry.
Trade secrets registration. Relativity Space has built, and is expanding, a system where employees can register trade secrets, something Bridget isn’t aware of other companies doing. Employees are incentivized to register trade secrets just as they are to submit inventions for patenting. To support the program, Bridget’s team invests heavily in employee education so people can spot IP worth registering. The team is also exploring AI to better document what the company owns and understand how it drives competitive value. “AI is definitely an essential tool for harvesting IP,” shares Bridget. “And it’s just going to get better and better at reducing the time engineers need to spend on registering it.”
Avoiding litigation. When teaching her workforce about trade secrets, Bridget treats respecting other companies’ trade secrets as the other side of the coin of protecting Relativity’s own. The initiative she spun up to balance the two is called “Don’t Talk About Your Ex,” with the ex being an employee’s former employer. Walk into a Relativity Space building and you’ll see signs saying “Don’t talk about your ex” or “Swipe left on your ex,” reminders to keep confidential information from previous employers confidential. It’s a unique trade secrets program, and an illustration of how Bridget makes raising “IP IQ” fun and relatable for Relativity’s young workforce.
Bridget’s take on KPIs, and on confidence
When it comes to measuring the success of Relativity Space’s IP, Bridget doesn’t believe in hard metrics, which surprised me: “It’s very important to me that we aren’t setting ourselves up to fail, so we don’t use KPIs for IP at Relativity.” She connects that decision to the pace of change at the company: “If you say you’re going to do a number and then the business changes and that doesn’t make sense anymore, now you’re aiming for a KPI that just isn’t aligned with the business goals.” So how does she measure success? An executive team that “sleeps well at night.” Bridget explains, “I’m satisfied when my executive team is. When they know about the big sources of IP risk, and I can tell them exactly what I’m doing now and in the future to address them.” As an advocate of KPIs for IP, I took her answer as a reminder that what’s best for one team will always be different for another.
I’m satisfied when my executive team is. When they know about the big sources of IP risk, and I can tell them exactly what I’m doing now and in the future to address them.
When I asked how Bridget navigates being a woman in a male-dominated field, she reflected on her journey from having a chip on her shoulder to becoming confident: “Early in my career I worried a lot about not looking like an engineer or lawyer and people thinking I wasn’t good enough. But that mindset was not serving me at all. It led to shyness, hesitancy, and reluctance that held me back for a long time. I had to work hard to overcome that mindset, but once I rejected it, I had more faith in the people around me. Oftentimes, our assumption that people won’t think we’re skilled or qualified is false. I learned that, if I don’t worry and just walk in confident in my abilities, people recognize it right away.”
Bridget radiates energy when she talks about Relativity Space, her work there, and her path to getting there. Our conversation reinforced for me just how innovative IP attorneys can be, and made me excited to keep following the rise of trade secrets in our industry.
