US satellite operator ViaSat has filed a complaint in a Californian court against manufacturer Space Systems Loral (SS/L) over allegations that it infringed patents and breached non-disclosure obligations.
SS/L detailed in an SEC filing that ViaSat is…
US satellite operator ViaSat has filed a complaint in a Californian court against manufacturer Space Systems Loral (SS/L) over allegations that it infringed patents and breached non-disclosure obligations.
SS/L detailed in an SEC filing that ViaSat is seeking, among other things, damages in amounts to be determined in court, and measures to prevent further acts of the alleged infringement and breaches.
“SS/L and ViaSat have agreed to engage in discussions to resolve the matter and to defer further proceedings in the lawsuit pending the outcome of such discussions,” added SS/L.
“If the parties are not able to resolve this matter through discussions, SS/L believes that it has meritorious defences and counterclaims to ViaSat’s claims. SS/L believes that its conduct was consistent with, and in due regard for, any applicable and valid intellectual property rights of ViaSat. Although no assurance can be provided, SS/L does not expect that this matter will have a material adverse effect on its financial position or results of operations.”
Further details of the dispute were not disclosed, but they likely centre on SS/L’s role in building high-throughput Ka-band satellites for both ViaSat and its broadband competitor Hughes.
ViaSat’s bird, ViaSat-1, was ordered first and launched last October to become what it claims is the world’s highest capacity communications satellite. Prior to this bird, the company had provided satellite broadband services to consumers via its Wildblue subsidiary, offering speeds of up to 1.5 Mpbs. However, ViaSat-1 promises data download speeds at up to 12 Mbps, which is a level of service similar to that provided via DSL connections.
But Hughes’ upcoming Jupiter spacecraft, which is scheduled to launch later this year, could offer comparable services across the US.
ViaSat, which was unable to comment before the press deadline, has previously pointed to certain similarities between the two satellites.
How SS/L fares in this dispute could impact its ability to bid for and manufacture future high-capacity Ka-band satellites, including further birds for ViaSat and Hughes.
But SS/L CEO Michael Targoff told SatelliteFinance on 6 February that, although negotiations scheduled to avoid court action had yet to start, he was optimistic about resolving the matter quickly.
“We do not anticipate this issue having any material adverse effect on SS/L’s financial position or future operations,” he said.
It is thought that the company has yet to assign lawyers to the case in the event that further legal proceedings are taken.
Meanwhile, SS/L has announced it has been picked to build high-capacity Ka-band broadband satellites for NBN, the Australian government-owned entity tasked with providing universal broadband services across the country.
It had been reported that SS/L had partnered with ViaSat for the NBN bid, although it remains unclear how this partnership will be affected by the legal dispute.
In an interview in mid-December, ViaSat CEO Mark Dankberg said he was already working with an undisclosed contractor to build its second satellite, ViaSat-2, which will be technically more sophisticated than ViaSat-1 and is being scheduled for a 2015 launch.
Posting Q3 2012 results on 6 February, the company said that revenues for the three months to 31 December 2011 slipped to US$195.9m, from US$205m a year earlier. It also posted $36.9m in adjusted EBITDA for Q3 2012, down from $37.3m for the corresponding period in 2011.
The results were weighed down by the delay to loft ViaSat-1, which had been targeted for an early 2011 launch, but was pushed to October following a series of manufacturing and rocket delays.
“Our third quarter financial results were generally in line with our expectations,” said Dankberg in a statement.
“New orders, revenue and backlog are growing compared to last fiscal year, but costs associated with the ViaSat-1 launch delay weigh on earnings. Now, with the successful launch of the groundbreaking ViaSat-1 satellite in October and the subsequent introduction of our new high-speed Exede(SM) broadband service early in 2012, we can really grow our broadband subscriber base for the first time since the WildBlue acquisition two years ago.”
