CARLSBAD, Calif., July 17, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Viasat
Inc. (NASDAQ:VSAT), a global communications company, today
announced a jury in the Superior Court for San Diego County found that Acacia
Communications violated intellectual property law by misusing
Viasat's proprietary technology. Viasat was awarded $49.3 million in damages stemming from Acacia's
breach of contract and unauthorized use of Viasat's soft decision
forward error correction (SDFEC) technology, which Acacia used in
the development of its Sky, Denali and Meru products.
Viasat licensed its SDFEC technology to Acacia a decade ago in
an agreement that required Acacia to pay royalties for its use of
any of Viasat's encoding and decoding methods. Acacia paid
royalties on the first generation of its products using Viasat's
SDFEC technology, but stopped paying for subsequent generations.
During the trial, Viasat presented evidence that Acacia copied its
SDFEC technology to create derivative, backwards-compatible
products.
"We appreciate that the jury, in their review of the evidence,
took corrective actions to ensure that the technology we invested
years to develop will continue to be protected," said Rick Baldridge, Viasat president and COO. "Our
SDFEC technology is the gold standard in the industry as evidenced
by Acacia's use of our code in new generations of their product,
and protecting our intellectual property and innovation is vital to
us. The decision confirms Acacia's improper infringement of our
valuable intellectual property rights."
Viasat expects to seek additional royalty damages under the
breach of contract, as well as attorney's fees, including cost of
proof sanctions. Such requests will be decided by the Court in
subsequent proceedings. Acacia has the option to appeal the
decision.
Viasat was represented in the matter by Kenneth M. Fitzgerald and Joseph L. McGeady of Fitzgerald Knaier LLP in
San Diego, Matthew S. Warren and Patrick M. Shields of Warren Lex LLP in
San Francisco and by in-house
counsel Colin Ward.
About Viasat
Viasat is a global communications company that believes everyone
and everything in the world can be connected. For more than 30
years, Viasat has helped shape how consumers, businesses,
governments and militaries around the world communicate. Today, the
Company is developing the ultimate global communications network to
power high-quality, secure, affordable, fast connections to impact
people's lives anywhere they are—on the ground, in the air or at
sea. To learn more about Viasat, visit: www.viasat.com, go
to Viasat's Corporate Blog, or follow the Company on social
media
at: Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter or YouTube.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements that are
subject to the safe harbors created under the Securities Act of
1933 and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Forward-looking
statements include statements about timing, receipt, and amount of
any award in the Company's lawsuit with Acacia. Readers are
cautioned that actual results could differ materially from those
expressed in any forward-looking statements. Factors that
could cause actual results to differ materially include: the
ability to predict the results of complex proceedings; and the
expense, time and potential disruption of litigation. In addition,
please refer to the risk factors contained
in Viasat's SEC filings available
at www.sec.gov, including Viasat's most recent
Annual Report on Form 10-K and Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q.
Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on any
forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date on
which they are made. Viasat undertakes no obligation to
update or revise any forward-looking statements for any reason.
Copyright © 2019 Viasat, Inc. All rights
reserved. Viasat is a registered trademark
of Viasat, Inc. The Viasat logo is a trademark
of Viasat, Inc. All other product or company names
mentioned are used for identification purposes only and may be
trademarks of their respective owners.
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SOURCE Viasat, Inc.