iFly GPS Forum

I trust our legal system and belive in the verdict of a impartial jury.

While not perfect, it works almost all the time. The only structural disadvantage in our system is that someone or some company with unlimited resources can sue over and over again with large legal teams against a small company or individual who simply cannot afford it or does not have the bandwidth to fight something like this for years on end...it is called "slamming" and many of you already know what I am talking about.

My preference would be for both companies to survive for the benefit of general aviation - there is enough room for both here...and enough of us on the bottom of the cost/price structure for everyone to make a profit while delivering a product/service we now require in many areas of the nation.

Mike N714AJ

Interesting how Garmin seemed to not really care when the SkyBeacon was ONLY for home-builts, experimentals and others...but when it was going to cut into the certified aircraft market, that was going a bit too far....just interesting.

Mike N714AJ

Garmin Sues uAvionix Over ADS-B Patent (Updated)

AVweb Flash- August 2018
Garmin has filed a lawsuit in a federal court in Montana, where uAvionix is based, accusing that company of using Garmin’s patented ADS-B technology without permission. The products under dispute are the EchoUAT and skyBeacon, which are sold for the experimental market.

As a customer, I'm anti- anti-competitiveness.  I understand and support the purpose of the patent system--it is designed to promote innovation, and give innovators a window of opportunity to benefit from their ideas and development before everybody and their brother can copy their work.

But patents can also be abused to hamstring legitimate competition and stifle true innovation.  I hope that's not what Garmin is doing here.

I don't know if Garmin's suit has merit or not--hopefully, the courts will figure that out correctly.  But the optics are poor:  Garmin is an 800-lb gorilla, and uAvionix is the little guy, and the case for infringement is not obvious to the layman.

As a customer, my interests are to see the best competition in the marketplace, so I am generally in favor of anyone who wants to go up against the 800-lb gorilla.