Rivada Space Network has been using the term ‘Outernet’ to describe its planned orbital satellite service for some time. But its use, especially as a potential trademark, is being challenged by the Outernet Council.
Rivada, in response, says that it agrees that ‘Outernet’ is a generic term and has voluntarily withdrawn its ‘OuterNET’ trademark application.
The Outernet Council is a non-profit organization with the aim to accelerates the creation of the Outernet through consensus-building, standardization and facilitation of partnerships among industry, government and other non-profits, and in particular space.
The Council says that the term ‘Outernet’ is a generic term for the internet in outer space, which based on its usage in the media and by various entities as a generic term, it can be used by anyone. In the same way that no one owns the word ‘internet’, no one can own the word ‘outernet’.
“Building the internet in space based on common standards and broad interoperability depends on private entities agreeing not to engage in conflicts about intellectual property where it is not in the common interest to do so. Trademarks and intellectual property seek to balance protecting private ingenuity with the public good and just like the many standards that we hope to work on together, the Outernet Council believes that the term ‘Outernet’ should be freely available for anyone to use,” said The Council.
The Council has given many examples of the word’s generic use, not least by various governmental agencies and the military, as well as the US Space Force.
Rivada’s plans for an initial satellite constellation of 300 satellites are still pending the receipt of adequate funding to build the and launch the craft. This batch of 300 must be in orbit by mid-2026, unless the company receives an extension of time from the ITU.
The Rivada plan, if it can be realized, would give its fleet a system that is highly secure and based on optical transfer of data and communications in extremely rapid time. “It will be amongst the world’s fastest: Capable of transmitting your data from pole to pole, hemisphere to hemisphere, in milliseconds,” says its promotional material.
Rivada also claims “to create the ‘Outernet’ a fully independent, enterprise-grade satellite network and how Rivada differentiates itself from traditional satellite constellations by implementing dynamic data routing in low Earth orbit, which the company says enhances security, speed, and reliability.”
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