ViaSat Reaches Settlement with Space Systems/Loral and Loral Space & Communications Inc.

Sept. 8, 2014

ViaSat Inc. has reached a comprehensive settlement of all outstanding claims related to its litigation with Space Systems/Loral (SS/L) and Loral Space & Communications Inc. for breach of contract and patent infringement.

In April 2014 a U.S. District Court in San Diego determined that SS/L breached its non-disclosure agreement with ViaSat by disclosing proprietary data to SS/L customer, and ViaSat competitor, Hughes Network Systems that was used to design Hughes' Jupiter-1 (now EchoStar XVII) high-capacity satellite. The jury also found three ViaSat patents to be both valid and infringed by SS/L's design of the Hughes Jupiter-1 satellite. A second lawsuit covering additional ViaSat patents and alleging infringement by additional SS/L satellites, including Jupiter-2 (EchoStar XIX), was likely to go to trial in early 2016. Under the terms of this agreement, ViaSat will settle its claims in both suits in exchange for $100 million plus interest to be paid to ViaSat through 2016.

"We have worked hard and invested much to prove that ViaSat created and owns the critical enabling technology of the first generation of high-capacity satellites built by SS/L, including ViaSat-1, Jupiter-1, and others still being manufactured and identified in the referenced suits," said Rick Baldridge, president and COO of ViaSat. "We believe this settlement is the largest ever in a commercial satellite communications intellectual property matter. It is a prudent solution that ends the distraction and cost of protracted litigation. The settlement also establishes an attractive economic value for our enabling technology that is in use among current and planned satellites, while allowing us to focus our full efforts on our next generation high-capacity satellite technologies."

The next generation (ViaSat-2) satellite design and payload technologies are being manufactured by Boeing with the first launch scheduled for mid-2016.

"We expect our ViaSat-2 generation of satellite systems to demonstrate dramatic improvements in several dimensions when compared to our first generation," continued Mr. Baldridge. "Compared to prior generation satellite systems, we believe this new generation of high-capacity systems will have as much impact on satellite broadband as ViaSat-1 did upon its launch, and we are not stopping there. We are committed to continuing to advance the state of the art for satellite broadband technologies in consumer, mobile, and enterprise markets."