The business aviation segment shows strong signs of recovery, leading inflight connectivity provider Gogo to a certain amount of optimism as it reports Q3 earnings. The company still lost money in the quarter, but with the private jet market rebounding and demand for wifi on board holding strong, CEO Oakleigh Thorne sees an “encouraging, continued service recovery” on the horizon.
SmartSky LTE
APEX Weekly Wrap: Airline CEO Shuffles and Using Data to Manage Risk Volatility
This episode of the APEX Weekly Wrap reflects on a week of senior staffing news, following announcements that both British Airways CEO Alex Cruz and Virgin Australia CEO Paul Scurrah will step aside, and way more.
SmartSky triumphs over Gogo in patent challenge
SmartSky scored a legal victory this week with the US Patent Office declining to institute an inter partes review of U.S. Patent No. 9,312,947 (“the ‘947 patent”), a challenge lodged by Gogo in April. The ruling at this stage is based on the USPTO’s believe that Gogo “has not demonstrated a reasonable likelihood of prevailing in demonstrating that at least one challenged claim of the ’947 patent is unpatentable over the prior art of record.” As a result, the issue won’t even make it to a formal hearing for review.
WSS fights back against SmartSky’s legal claims
Wireless Systems Solutions issued a statement late Monday disputing the charges levied by SmartSky in a federal lawsuit. Calling the filing retaliatory, WSS’s Laslo Gross spoke with PaxEx.Aero about the claims and what he expects in the next steps of the case.
SmartSky sues supplier over IP theft, delays network deployment
One of SmartSky’s suppliers is accused of stealing the inflight connectivity company’s intellectual property and trying to sell it as an independent ATG network rather than delivering the contracted goods to the company. This one is gonna get messy, folks.
SmartSky counters Gogo’s patent dispute
When Gogo filed for a review of a key SmartSky patent in April the upstart inflight connectivity company vowed to defend its intellectual property portfolio. At its core, SmartSky’s position is that Gogo chose to redefine the term “Software Defined Radio.” SkartSky also posits that much of the petition is redundant to evidence previously considered in the initial application review.
SmartSky faces a patent challenge from Gogo
As it developed a new, high-speed, terrestrial inflight communications platform SmartSky also worked diligently to develop a broad intellectual property portfolio. The company hit 150 patents issued in January 2020 and even hosts a separate website dedicated to tracking the portfolio. The patents are intended, among other things, to help the company fend off competition […]
ThinKom touts low-drag advantages in push for regional jet connectivity
Getting high-speed satellite-based internet service on to regional jets has proven an uphill battle to date. Antenna manufacturer ThinKom hopes its Ka2517 solution can help. The company released details of a study this week confirming its antenna can fly on smaller fuselages without dramatically increasing drag.
Understanding the latest SmartSky delay
Last week’s confirmation that SmartSky is delaying activation of its new high speed air-to-ground network to Q2 2020 is somewhat disappointing. But understanding why the schedule slipped should provide better clarity for the company’s customers and investors with respect to future expectations of the service. CEO Haynes Griffin provided those details to PaxEx.Aero.
United Airlines’ 50-seat RJ refresh will not include IFE/C…Yet!
With the United Express ERJ-145 slated for a full interiors refresh starting in early 2020 is now time for entertainment and wifi to also take flight on the company’s smallest jets? It seems likely, even if that bit was not supposed to be public just yet.