BriarTek 2-Way SEND Patent Claims Invalidated

BriarTek's patent claims relating to 2-way Satellite Emergency Notification Devices (SENDs) have been invalidated in a federal court ruling that granted summary judgement to Delorme. While the ruling makes interesting reading, if you are so inclined ( Click here for links to the ruling download or viewing), the bottom line from District Court Judge Leonie Brinkema was that "all the asserted claims have been found to be invalid as a matter of law over the prior art, either as anticipated or as obvious," and therefore BriarTek’s patent was invalid.

BriarTek’s patent claims threatened to strangle expansion and innovation is this increasingly popular distress beacon market. At best, the patent claims would increase the cost of the devices for consumers, which inevitably discourage purchase and their subsequent use to save lives.

Full story at: http://www.equipped.org/blog/?p=504

I love seeing a patent troll get clobbered in court.

Thank you Doug for making mention of this.

We at DeLorme just want to move on, and continue our success in providing low cost, reliable satellite communications services to customers all across the US, Alaska and Hawaii.

The market has spoken loudly. It has long demanded an affordable [under $300] 2-way device that it can depend on wherever they are, which the inReach SE & Explorer have proven to do.

Many of our retailers of inReach, like REI [Recreational Equipment Inc] have are both surprised and satisfied by how quickly the market has adopted our 2-way communications, and other like devices.

While I am not in a position to comment on any issues related to the legal matter, I have been in this industry for over 16 years now, with long term employment stints at Iridium, Globalstar/SPOT and DeLorme.

I remember when I worked for Iridium in 1997 that they/we were bringing to market satellite communications services [including 2 way SMS] that had never existed in the past. We were truly pioneering new communications solutions.

Many industries and people of all walks of life are benefiting from these satellite based solutions. Most recently, even private pilots in the US are finding applications for our devices that many would not have foreseen.

While we are not in any way suggesting inReach to be used in lieu of any government-mandated device, inReach has proven to greatly augment existing satellite based SOS emergency technologies [see enclosure].

I also understand that other companies, like ACR and others have actually benefited from DeLorme inReach's success. Our presence in the marketplace has in part further developed the product category, and awareness of satcom services among common retail consumers. There are many winners from the growth of the product category, provided people continue to use ours, and other like devices in a responsible manner.

regards

Donnie Hatch
DeLorme inReach