US satellite weather start-up GeoMetWatch is suing Utah State University, its former partner, after it ditched the group for a tie-up with venture capitalists Tempus Global Data.
GMW, which had previously been marketing the STORM weather data payload…
US satellite weather start-up GeoMetWatch is suing Utah State University, its former partner, after it ditched the group for a tie-up with venture capitalists Tempus Global Data.
GMW, which had previously been marketing the STORM weather data payload that the university built, accuses it of breach of contract, misappropriation of trade secrets and unfair competition.
The university recently partnered with Tempus to seek financial backers after GMW was unable to secure commitments, estimated at US$170m, to get the payload on an AsiaSat satellite in time for a 2016 launch.
But GMW, which also names Tempus, the venture capital firm’s CEO Alan Hall and his personal investing entity Island Park Investments in its suit, alleges that the university induced it into disclosing business and technical trade secrets surrounding its efforts to develop a satellite weather system. It alleges that contractual agreements were also breached, and that the defendants have made false and misleading representations about its and their own services.
GMW’s CEO Edward Keible said “obviously we are deeply disappointed that our good faith efforts to build an enterprise in partnership with a respected institution such as Utah State has resulted in the need to protect our interests and those of our shareholders in this manner”.
He added: “One simply doesn’t anticipate that a university would violate the trust of its business partners, which we believe the evidence supporting our assertions clearly demonstrates.”
The university said the lawsuit and the GMW’s comments to the press about it were without merit.
“If necessary, Utah State University will vigorously defend ourselves in court against the baseless claims made by GeoMetWatch,” said a spokesperson.
GMW was granted the first commercial remote sensing licence from the US government in September 2010 as part of its efforts to get STORM off the ground.
After its partnership with Utah State was scrapped, it announced it had found a new hyperspectral sounder maker in Exelis, the US aerospace and defence engineering firm, to use this licence.
Exelis said it already has several years of experience in the technology, and that its design will be based on its Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI).
STORM meanwhile is a derivative of a cancelled NASA programme and stands for Sounding & Tracking Observatory for Regional Meteorology.
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