GPS Law Suit No Small Potato

PALO ALTO, CALIFORNIA: August 22, 2007—Satnews Daily—A small, but significant, industry using GPS technology is the farming community. In fact, the global market for agricultural GPS technology is increasing. This was brought to light due a patent infringement ruling that occurred this past week between one of the largest agricultural GPS companies, Trimble Navigation, and one of the smallest, Hemisphere GPS. The former had charged the latter with the patent infringement.



From filing to resolution, the case required five years to come to fruition. And the close did come when a District Court Judge Phyllis Hamilton in Northern California issued her ruling that there had been NO patent infringement by Hemisphere GPS. Hemisphere was grouped with fellow defendants RHS, Inc., CSI Wireless, Inc., and Satio, Inc. The action was first brought by Trimble against Hemisphere in 2002 and sought $40 million in lost profits and $11 million in royalties, plus an injunction against Hemisphere’s agricultural GPS products.



Fitted inside a tractor or other farming vehicle, the GPS unit allows farmers to drive in precisely calibrated patterns. These include parallel straight lines, parallel curving lines, even spirals. Each of these patterns can be important in fields that undulate, or possess an irregular shape, or are filled with obstacles. The technology behind the patent issue brought by Trimble, No. 5,987,383, is directed to a specific method of guidance used in contour farming. Hemisphere’s law firm of Morrison & Foerster won the case.