Court Upholds Verdict in ViaSat Breach of Contract and Patent Infringement Lawsuit Against Space Systems/Loral

Aug. 12, 2014

A federal court judge has upheld a jury's verdict that Space Systems/Loral (SS/L) breached its contract with ViaSat Inc. by misusing ViaSat's proprietary and intellectual property and infringed ViaSat patents covering the groundbreaking ViaSat-1 technology. In addition, the judge ordered a new jury trial on the damages phase of the case, where ViaSat will be given the forum to present its case to show the full damages caused by the breach and infringement. In April, a jury awarded $283 million in damages to ViaSat.

"The court's rulings supported our case in nearly all substantive respects. Most importantly, the judge confirmed the jury's findings of infringement and breach of contract, findings which were clearly supported by evidence showing that SS/L willingly took our inventions and sold them to Hughes," said Rick Baldridge, ViaSat president and COO. "That evidence showed in detail how SS/L 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 SS/L'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."

 In addition, the court also set an August 26 hearing on ViaSat's motion for a permanent injunction prohibiting SS/L from manufacturing or selling infringing satellites or satellite components, including the continued manufacturing of infringing satellites under construction.

In February 2012, ViaSat served a complaint for patent infringement and breach of contract against SS/L and Loral Space & Communications related to the unauthorized use of ViaSat's intellectual property, including technology ViaSat developed for its ground breaking 100+ Gbps ViaSat-1 satellite. In September 2013, ViaSat filed an additional complaint for patent infringement against Space Systems/Loral (SS/L) related to the ongoing, unauthorized, and willful use of ViaSat technologies. In April 2014, a federal court jury found that SS/L breached the non-disclosure agreements and manufacturing contract between the parties and also infringed three ViaSat patents relating to its ViaSat-1 high-capacity satellite system. The trial was held in the United States District Court for the Southern District of California.