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Loral settles ViaSat $100m claim

December 3, 2014

Satellite builder Loral Space & Communications says that it has participated in a mediation session in order to determine how the $100 million patent misuse award made to ViaSat of California was to be allocated.

The legal dispute came about when ViaSat claimed that Loral, and its then subsidiary Space Systems/Loral, has misused and infringed patents held by ViaSat. A federal court in San Diego initially awarded ViaSat $283 million in damages although these were subsequently reduced to $100 million.

Loral itself will pay out $45 million, while Space System/Loral (now owned by MacDonald, Dettwiler & Assoc.) will pay the remaining $55 million. Loral adds that it has already paid over $23.4 million (including interest payments) and will make additional quarterly payment from now to January 2017 until the obligation is paid off.

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