Viasat and SSL Posture, Others Watch Closely, as Patent Trial Approaches

摘要

Eight U.S. citizens or residents plucked from the streets of San Diego to form a court jury will spend three weeks starting March 26 determining whether satellite broadband provider ViaSat Inc. is right in claiming $800 million in patent-infringement damages from satellite builder Loral Space and Communications. The trial, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California, follows the February 2012 lawsuit filed by Carlsbad, Calif.-based ViaSat. The lawsuit was prompted by the sale by what was then Loral's satellite-building division, Space Systems/Loral (SSL), of a high-throughput broadband satellite to ViaSat's principal U.S. satellite-broadband competitor, Hughes Network Systems, now owned by EchoStar Corp.