GPS World

Author: GPS World Staff

  • ITC Says SiRF Infringes Six Broadcom Patents

    A U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) judge has ruled that certain SiRF Technology products infringe six patents related to improving GPS processing and sensitivity that are held by Global Locate Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Broadcom.

    The infringement findings cover a range of SiRF products, including those incorporating the SiRFstarIII and SiRFInstant GPS architectures, according to Broadcom.

    The ruling came Friday, August 8, just a day after SiRF said it had asked the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office reexamine four patents that are the subject of an infringement suit Broadcom has brought against SiRF in federal court. Furthermore, In June the ITC rejected claims by SiRF Technology that Global Locate infringed upon two of its patents, and also found that SiRF’s asserted claims on one of the patents at issue were invalid.

    The ruling Friday followed a trial earlier this year. Broadcom said it expects a final determination by the full six-person commission by early December.

    The six patents that SiRF was found to infringe are U.S. patents 6,417,801; 6,937,187; 6,606,346; 7,158,080; 6,704,651; 6,651,000 — relating to extended ephemeris assistance, calculating time in GPS receivers, enhancing sensitivity in assisted GPS systems, and implementing hardware structures for parallel correlation, according to Broadcom.

  • SiRF Requests Reexamination of Broadcom Patent Ruling

    SiRF Technology Holdings, Inc. of San Jose, California, has completed filing with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office official requests for reexamination of each of the four patents that Broadcom recently asserted against SiRF in the Santa Ana, California, federal district court.

    SiRF seeks review and invalidation of all four of the Broadcom patents named in the lawsuit, through its requests for ex-parte reexamination and in view of what it terms “substantial new questions of patentability raised by prior art not previously considered by the Patent Office,” according to the company.

    SiRF also intends to seek a stay of the federal district court case.

    SiRF and Broadcom have been engaged in an ongoing legal battle over patents held by their respective companies, both claiming patent infringement. In late June, SiRF Technology petitioned the International Trade Commission (ITC) to review part of a ruling that found that Broadcom didn’t infringe upon two of its patents as the company alleged.

    A ruling in Broadcom’s six claims of patent infringement against SiRF before the ITC is expected any day. The trial took place in April.

  • Boeing Awarded Contract for GPS Enhancement Demonstration

    The Boeing Company has been awarded a $153.5 million U.S. Naval Research Laboratory contract to demonstrate High Integrity Global Positioning System (GPS) technology concepts. The contract is expected to run through 2010.

    The High Integrity GPS effort combines satellite signals from the Iridium Low Earth Orbit telecommunications system and GPS Mid Earth Orbit navigational satellites to enhance navigation availability, integrity, accuracy, and jam-resistant capabilities for warfighters.

    “High Integrity GPS is an effective near-term tool that will augment GPS satellites to provide critical new capabilities, including aggressive levels of additional anti-jam protection,” said David Whelan, Boeing Integrated Defense Systems chief scientist and vice president/deputy general manager, Advanced Systems. “Our research concluded that significant low-cost improvements to GPS can be achieved by using existing signal platforms and systems such as the Iridium constellation.”

    The need to provide a more capable GPS for warfighters stems from the increasing sophistication of hostile jamming capabilities, according to Boeing. GPS supports numerous military and civil applications, so the ability to jam the system presents a grave threat, the company said.

    “Boeing has been working over the years to find new ways to maximize the effectiveness of the GPS constellation,” said Alex Lopez, vice president, Advanced Network and Space Systems. “With this integrated approach, we can increase the value of the current system by improving its operational mission-assurance capabilities.”

    Based on its years of experience supporting the operation of the Iridium system, Boeing is able to integrate the system with GPS in a manner to create the first such combined navigation and communication “system-of-systems,” the company claimed.

    The High Integrity GPS team includes Boeing Advanced Systems and Phantom Works, Iridium LLC, Rockwell Collins, Coherent Navigation, and experts from academia.

    Iridium Satellite LLC, headquartered in Bethesda, Md., operates the Iridium constellation to provide worldwide voice and data satellite communications services for the private sector and the U.S. government. Boeing has provided Iridium with systems engineering and constellation management functions since the system became operational in 2000.

    Phantom Works is the advanced research and development unit of Boeing. Its charter is to provide innovative technology solutions that reduce cycle time and cost of aerospace products and services while improving their quality and performance.

  • SiRF Appeals ITC Ruling on Broadcom Dispute

    SiRF Technology has petitioned the International Trade Commission (ITC) to review part of a ruling earlier this month that found that Broadcom didn’t infringe upon two of its patents as the company alleged.

    ITC Administrative Law Judge Paul Luckern issued his initial determination in the suit originally filed by SiRF against Global Locate on June 13 following a six-day trial in March in Washington, D.C. Broadcom acquired Global Locate in July 2007. The judge subsequently found that Broadcom didn’t infringe on SiRF’s intellectual property, and found one of the two patents in question to be invalid.

    SiRF said it has petitioned the ITC to review those aspects of the initial determination that found that the valid patent was not infringed by Broadcom.

    The intellectual property dispute goes back to 2006, when SiRF also took Global Locate to task in federal district court; it in turn counter-sued. Those suits were stayed pending the ITC ruling.

    Broadcom also has its own claims against SiRF before the ITC, having filed six claims of patent infringement; that trial took place in April of 2008. An initial determination in that case, heard before Administrative Law Judge Carl Charneski, should come on Aug. 8, 2008, according to the company. Broadcom also filed a lawsuit in May 2008 in federal district court, claiming infringement of four patents.

  • USGIF Awards Program Solicits Nominations

    The United States Geospatial Intelligence Foundation (USGIF) is now accepting nominations for the 2008 Awards Program. All submissions are due by 5 p.m. EST on Friday, August 15.

    Members of the community at-large are encouraged to nominate colleagues as well as their own work for recognition of outstanding efforts in advancing the tradecraft and supporting the mission. Each year, the USGIF Awards Program acknowledges the accomplishments of industry, academia, government, and military with multiple awards in its three awards categories.

    The Geospatial Intelligence Achievement Award recognizes outstanding achievement in the tradecraft by an individual or team from the military, government, and industry sectors. The Geospatial Academic Achievement Award commends the achievements of a top graduate of a nationally recognized geospatial intelligence academic program as well as an organization that demonstrates the top geospatial intelligence program or project. The USGIF Lifetime Achievement Award is presented, upon selection by the USGIF Board of Directors, to someone who has dedicated much of his or her work to the tradecraft.

    Last year’s winners include the Honorable James R. Clapper Jr. (Lifetime Achievement); Gabriella Farris of the Geospatial-Intelligence Training Program (Academic Achievement); Dr. Swen Johnson of Socio-Cultural Intelligence Analysis Inc. (Academic Research); the Space and Naval Systems Warfare Command C4I Support Team (Military Achievement Award); the Defense Intelligence Agency’s Missile and Space Intelligence Center (Government Achievement); and Matt O’Connell (Industry Achievement).

  • ITC Rules Against SiRF, for Broadcom

    Broadcom Corp. says the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) rejected claims by GPS chip maker SiRF Technology, which alleged that Global Locate infringed upon two of its patents. Furthermore, the ITC also found that SiRF’s asserted claims on one of the patents at issue were invalid, according to Broadcom.

    Broadcom acquired Global Locate in July 2007; the patent dispute stems back at least to 2006, when SiRF also took Global Locate to task in federal district court; it in turn counter-sued. Those suits were stayed pending the ITC ruling. ITC Administrative Law Judge Paul Luckern issued his initial determination Friday, June 13, following a six-day trial last March in Washington, D.C.

    Broadcom also has its own claims against SiRF before the ITC, having filed six claims of patent infringement; that trial took place in April of 2008. An initial determination in that case, heard before Administrative Law Judge Carl Charneski, should come on August 8, 2008, according to the company.

    Broadcom also filed a lawsuit in May 2008 in federal district court, claiming infringement of four patents.

  • TomTom – Tele Atlas Merger a Done Deal

    Following the announcement that Tele Atlas was making management changes in light of the pending merger, TomTom says that it has completed the merger of digital map supplier Tele Atlas.

    TomTom and Tele Atlas jointly announced Thursday, June 5, that TomTom “declares the recommended public offer for all issued and outstanding shares with a nominal value of €0.10 each in the capital of Tele Atlas unconditional.” TomTom said it will grant shareholders who have not yet tendered their shares under the offer to tender their shares in a post-acceptance period lasting until June 26; these shares are less than 3 percent of the total Tele Atlas shares.

    TomTom has been pursuing a merger with the digital map data supplier for nearly a year, outbidding rival Garmin in the process, in a deal worth approximately €2.9 billion ($4.5 billion). After a lengthy review by European anti-trust officials, TomTom and Tele Atlas received approval for the merger in May.

    Earlier this week the companies announced that during the acceptance period, which ended May 30, some 63,625,232 shares had been tendered for acceptance. Together with the 27,235,651 shares already held by TomTom and 1,685,000 shares to be delivered by Tele Atlas board members, the shares totaled 92,545,883, or 97.48% percent of the total issued and outstanding shares of Tele Atlas capital.

    As soon as legally possible, TomTom intends to remove Tele Atlas’ listings on European financial markets. The company also reiterated that it may initiate any of the reorganization measures as set out in the terms of its offer, which includes the possibility of a squeeze-out procedure.

  • Northrop Grumman Completes GPS OCX Integrated Baseline Review

    Northrop Grumman Corporation (Reston, Virginia) has completed the integrated baseline review for the U.S. Air Force Next-Generation Global Positioning System (GPS) Ground Control Segment (OCX), achieving two major milestone reviews within a matter of weeks, the company announced Tuesday.

    The integrated baseline review accomplishes several goals, such as identifying key schedule milestones, ensuring adequate resources are available to complete program tasks, and verifying tasks are planned and can be objectively measured, says the company. The review follows close on the heels of the Northrop Grumman team’s successful system requirements review, another major milestone.

    “This was the most comprehensive integrated baseline review of my experience,” said Steve Bergjans, GPS OCX vice president and program manager for Northrop Grumman. He said the Air Force “dug deep,” asking hundreds of detailed questions that required the company to thoroughly explain its management practices in support of the OCX program.

    He continued, “To have successfully completed this very thorough review almost immediately after the comprehensive system requirements review is clear evidence our team can take on multiple, high-priority tasks while delivering strong results for the customer and it positions the Northrop Grumman team for long-term success with the program.”

    The back-to-back completion of the system requirements review and the integrated baseline review is a shared accomplishment of Northrop Grumman; Harris Corporation, Melbourne, Fla.; Integral Systems Inc., Lanham, Md.; Infinity Systems Engineering, Colorado Springs, Colo.; and Lockheed Martin Information Systems and Global Services, Gaithersburg, Md.

    GPS OCX is intended to revolutionize the operations concept for command and control of existing GPS II and future GPS III satellites. OCX will deliver new GPS mission planning, constellation management, ground antenna, monitoring station, and satellite command and control capabilities.

    Under the 18-month contract, Northrop Grumman’s Team OCX will provide systems engineering and integration; architecture design; communications and network engineering; information assurance and security; modeling and simulation; network management; software development; support, maintenance and implementation; and test and evaluation.

  • DigitalGlobe Expands Imagery Solutions for Oil and Gas

    DigitalGlobe has unveiled ImageConnect: Oil and Gas, an online imagery service with on-demand access via GIS and Web mapping services to areas of global oil and gas exploration. Built upon DigitalGlobe’s standard ImageConnect solution, ImageConnect Oil and Gas provides imagery of geographic areas important to upstream oil and gas exploration, including oil basins, refineries, pipelines, and geological areas of interest to the oil and gas industry.

    ImageConnect: Oil and Gas provides online access to a 1 million square kilometer global image layer of high-resolution satellite-imaged oil basins. With DigitalGlobe’s content collection strategy for identifying and gathering high-interest areas around the world, ImageConnect Oil and Gas will have new images added regularly from DigitalGlobe’s constellation of highly accurate, sub-meter satellites.

    “Our world imagery solutions affect oil and gas professionals’ view on location decisions, by bringing within their reach, both economically and geographically, premium imagery for monitoring and exploring oil fields and facilities,” said Marc Tremblay, senior vice-president and general manager of DigitalGlobe’s commercial business unit.

    “By accessing our advanced imagery online, oil and gas enterprises can increase their visibility into potential expansion areas, select the best location for infrastructure placement in remote and rugged terrain, and quickly monitor facilities and reclamation areas by reducing the time and operational costs associated with onsite monitoring and surveying.”

    With a subscription to ImageConnect, GIS professionals can connect directly to DigitalGlobe’s global online image library for country- or industry-specific areas of interest through plug-ins for major desktop mapping software applications, including ESRI ArcGIS, MapInfo Professional, Autodesk Map 3D, or any WMS-enabled client.

  • Merrill Lynch Selects HPDI as Oil and Gas Data Provider

    HPDI LLC, a supplier of historical oil and gas data and decision support tools for the energy industry, has been selected by Merrill Lynch to provide its institutional investors with information and research services. As part of a new service called Merrill Open Minds, Merrill Lynch will offer information from industry-specific research companies to assist trading clients in making investment decisions. Of the seven research entities initially chosen to participate by Merrill Lynch, HPDI is the sole provider of energy information.

    “For more than a decade, oil and gas companies have relied on HPDI to provide them with the historical information they need to plan their engineering, marketing, and exploration strategies,” said Corey Rhoden, HPDI chief operating officer. “This same information proves extremely valuable to financial institutions as they evaluate potential investments in the energy sector.”

    HPDI aggregates historical oil and gas production data, drilling permits, prices, transportation, refinery and gas plant information. HPDI makes this information accessible through Internet-based applications that enable clients to query the data and display results in a variety of graphical and tabular formats, including GIS maps, charts, and tables. Clients can use HPDI tools to extrapolate data sets to predict future trends, or they can download the data to other analysis applications.

    “We are very pleased that HPDI is a part of Merrill Open Minds. HPDI offers Merrill Lynch institutional investor clients the depth of coverage and ease of use to support a sophisticated analysis of oil and gas production trends,” said John Svolos, head of Sales and Marketing of Merrill Open Minds.

    The full suite of HPDI products and services will be available to Merrill Lynch clients. All of the HPDI research and analysis tools come with online tutorials designed to allow users to quickly extract and display oil and gas data relating to specific operators, producing formations, activity dates, and geographic areas. HPDI offers its customers access to six primary databases:

    • U.S. Historical Production includes oil and gas production statistics from producing states dating back to the 1950s. This database is continually updated with new state reports.
    • Drilling Permit Database, provided by RigData, includes permit numbers, well and operator information, granted dates and actual images of the permits and plats. This database can be cross-referenced with the U.S. Historical Production data for complex queries with results spotted on a map.
    • Pricing Data contains oil and gas marketing data such as purchaser, producer, and facility information, as well as price and post information.
    • Transporter Database includes oil and gas transporting details such as to/from information, volumes, inventory, and report dates.
    • Refinery and Gas Plant Databases contain receipt and delivery information as well as activity information.

  • GE Oil & Gas PII Pipeline Solutions Releases PipeView SheetGen 5.0

    GE’s PII Pipeline Solutions business has launched a new version of PipeView SheetGen, a software tool for generating pipeline alignment sheets directly from maintained data sources. The latest release of SheetGen also supports direct editing of enterprise data, meaning that attributes can be edited right from the band view. SheetGen automatically generates alignment sheets directly from relational databases and geographic information systems.

    “SheetGen was the first alignment sheet generation product in the industry when it was developed in 1992,” said John Bucci, general manager of GE’s PII Pipeline Solutions business. “The SheetGen team has created a mixture of power, flexibility, and ease of use, providing improved features that operators will greatly appreciate.”

    With this release of SheetGen 5.0, users can generate ad hoc alignment sheets on demand simply by navigating to an area of interest on the map. SheetGen will then produce an alignment sheet using the map extents, allowing the ability to create alignment sheets where required in addition to the use of predefined sheet windows.
    Additionally, SheetGen provides on-demand previews for alignment sheet configurations. The sheet layout that the user sees on the screen is the sheet the user receives as hard copy.

    Another feature provided with SheetGen is a set of pre-defined templates that users can take advantage of immediately. Predefined templates contain preset bands that users can simply copy, save, and modify, or they can create new ones as needed.

  • Lockheed Gets the Nod for GPS III

    The U.S. Air Force finally made it official and confirmed the rumor mill: Lockheed Martin has beat out rival satellite contractor Boeing for the contract to build the first eight GPS III satellites.

    Secretary of the Air Force Michael Wynne and the Global Positioning Systems Wing, Space and Missile Systems Center, Los Angeles Air Force Base, Calif. made the announcement regarding the GPS III development and production contract late Thursday, May 15. In retrospect it was not exactly a well-kept secret; rumors had swirled for at least a month if not longer that Lockheed would get the nod, and two days earlier on May 13 the Wall Street Journal reported as fact that Lockheed had won, citing unnamed sources.

    Under the $1.4 billion contract, the team of Lockheed Martin Space Systems Co., ITT Corp., and General Dynamics will produce eight GPS IIIA satellites, with the first launch projected for 2014, Lockheed said. The development contract will result in approximately 500 new jobs for Lockheed Martin.

    Eight GPS IIIB and 16 GPS IIIC satellites are planned for later increments, with each increment including additional capabilities based on technical maturity. Taken as a whole, all of the GPS III contracts could be worth more than approximately $3.5 billion. When fully deployed, the GPS III constellation will feature a cross-linked command and control architecture, allowing the entire GPS constellation to be updated simultaneously from a single ground station, according to Lockheed. Additionally, a new spot beam capability for enhanced military (M-Code) coverage and increased resistance to hostile jamming, as well as new civilian signals, will be incorporated.

    Lockheed Martin of course isn’t new to the GPS program; it designed and built 21 GPS IIR satellites for the Air Force and subsequently modernized eight of those spacecraft, designated GPS IIR-M. For GPS III, Lockheed Martin’s program management and spacecraft development effort will occur at its facilities in Newtown, Penn., with final assembly, integration and test located in Denver, according to the company. Its Sunnyvale, Calif., operations will provide various spacecraft components and a launch support team will be based at Cape Canaveral, Fla. Lockheed Martin’s flight-proven A2100 bus will serve as the GPS III spacecraft platform.

    ITT, based in Clifton, N.J. will provide the navigation payload, and General Dynamics Advanced Information Systems, Gilbert, Ariz., will provide the Network Communications Element (NCE) which includes the UHF Crosslink and Tracking Telemetry & Command (TT&C) subsystems.