Bankrupt mobile satellite system designer Ellipso’s intellectual property assets have been put up for sale.
IpAuctions and National Commercial Auctioneers, the court-appointed sale consultants, are managing the process and are inviting offers for…
Bankrupt mobile satellite system designer Ellipso’s intellectual property assets have been put up for sale.
IpAuctions and National Commercial Auctioneers, the court-appointed sale consultants, are managing the process and are inviting offers for Ellipso’s patent and trademark portfolio, which consists of 21 patents, a patent application and 2 trademarks for mobile satellite technology.
Like many of its peers at the end of the 1990s, Ellipso had ambitious plans to develop a satellite-based global communications system that would provide low-cost and high-quality digital voice and data services worldwide. The project had included the participation of a number of large industry players such as Boeing, Harris Corp and L-3 Communications.
However, privately-held Ellipso failed to raise the necessary financing to get the project off of the ground and instead partnered with ICO Global sharing both spectrum and mobile satellite technology.
Having moved away from its initial business model, the company focussed on a number of other projects and most recently returned to the public consciousness in 2008 following news that it was investigating the possibility of patent infringements by O3b Networks.
Ellipso eventually became a victim of the credit crunch and filed for Chapter 11 protection in the US Bankruptcy Court in the District of Columbia in February 2009.
Commenting on the IP asset sale, Joe Popolo, president of IpAuctions, said: “When the company was raising money, they had commitments for hundreds of millions of dollars for development. Now these intellectual property assets are available for purchase through the bankruptcy sale process.”
