[Infowarrior] - Satellite to be junked because lunar flyby is patented

[Richard Forno]

Satellite to be junked because lunar flyby is patented
http://www.boingboing.net/2008/04/11/satellite-to-be-junk.html

A satellite is being abandoned in orbit because its position can't be
corrected without violating a Boeing patent on lunar flyby:

    The AMC-14 commercial geostationary satellite was launched in March by a
Proton launch vehicle into space just short of its minimum geostationary
transfer orbit (GTO)...

    However, SpaceDaily has now learned that a plan to salvage AMC-14 was
abandoned a week ago when SES gave up in the face of patent issues relating
to the lunar flyby process used to bring wayward GEO birds back to GEO Earth
orbit.

    Sources have told SpaceDaily that it was possible to bring AMC-14 back
via the moon to a stable GEO orbit where the high powered satellite would
have been able to operate for at four years and probably longer.

    Industry sources have told SpaceDaily that the patent is regarded as
legal "trite", as basic physics has been rebranded as a "process", and that
the patent wouldn't stand up to any significant level of court scrutiny and
was only registered at the time as "the patent office was incompetent when
it came to space matters".