Space Systems Loral has overturned US$283m in damages awarded against the satellite maker in April after it lost a breach of contract and patent infringement lawsuit to ViaSat.
Loral said the court considering the post-trial motions found the jury’s…
Space Systems Loral has overturned US$283m in damages awarded against the satellite maker in April after it lost a breach of contract and patent infringement lawsuit to ViaSat.
Loral said the court considering the post-trial motions found the jury’s damages award had resulted in a miscarriage of justice. A new jury trial, pencilled in for November, will decide how much it should pay.
US satellite operator ViaSat’s post-trial motions also sought to ban SSL from making and selling additional satellites that were found by the jury to infringe on its patents. But a decision on this injunction was deferred by the court until 26 August 2014.
Michael Targoff, vice chairman of Loral, SSL’s former parent company, said: “We are pleased with the court’s decision, as it is an important first step in rectifying the injustice resulting from the April 2014 trial.
“Not only do we believe that the jury’s damages award was excessive, but we continue to believe that we have strong grounds for challenging the jury’s liability findings on appeal.”
Loral sold SSL to Canada’s MDA in 2012, but had agreed to indemnify it for any damages in the case.
The legal action is thought to have complicated Loral’s search to sell itself and its principal asset, a majority stake in satellite operator Telesat, although a change of control of the group would have triggered a US$200m cap on its indemnification liability.
Their disagreement stems from their work together on the ViaSat-1 HTS satellite several years ago. The jury in April found that SSL had infringed on three ViaSat patents in building high throughput systems for other operators.
ViaSat COO Rick Baldridge said the court considering the post-trial motions supported its case “in nearly all substantive respects”.
He said: “Most importantly, the judge confirmed the jury’s findings of infringement and breach of contract, findings which were clearly supported by evidence showing that SSL willingly took our inventions and sold them to Hughes.
“That evidence showed in detail how SSL misappropriated our technology, including sending our proprietary ViaSat-1 specification to Hughes and secretly trying to patent the ViaSat-1 design as its own invention, among other illegal actions.”
“We strongly maintain that SSL’s actions caused significant financial and business harm to ViaSat, and we look forward to the opportunity to reinforce the full extent of the damage in the November proceeding.”
Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan represented Viasat in the lawsuit, while SSL hired Susman Godfrey.
