There is an interesting article in today's Miami Herald questioning who owns the rights to GPS technology. A defunct company called SPS claims that Motorola ended a joint venture in 2000 that gives SPS the intellectual property rights to GPS technology. Motorola claims that they gave SPS $5,000,000, paid for their offices, and paid employee salaries. The law suit could potentially be in the $1 Billion dollar range. The trial will take about a month.
posted by jestjuggle
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A closer read of the article would be a good idea.
This is not about actual GPS technology, which was developed by DARPA.
This is about a specific vehicle-tracking technology using GPS.
Dave_W6DPS
“…a potential $1 billion lawsuit over who developed tracking and radio technology that taps into GPS, a tracking system used to monitor vehicles and objects via satellite.”
GPS was invented by my father, Roger Easton, in 1964. He worked for the Naval Research Lab and the system was originally called TIMATION. He received the National Medal of Technolgy from President Bush on 2/13/2006
An article of mine is at:
http://www.thespacereview.com/article/626/1
A picture of the award ceremony:
http://www.nationalmedals.org/2004photos/20060213_Easton-72.jpg
A video of his career starts at 3:00
http://www.nationalmedals.org/videos.htm
Go to
The Lives and Accomplishments of the 2004 National Medals Laureates (256)or
The Lives and Accomplishments of the 2004 National Medals Laureates (56)