US company sues Google; claims search engine giant stole their idea

Zee Media Bureau

New Delhi: Search engine giant Google and its parent company Alphabet Inc are being sued by a a US company called Space Data Corporation over claims that the former stole their idea for Project Loon.

According to a report in The Verge, Space Data Corporation alleges in its complaint against Google, it was they who had developed the technology nearly a decade back, and were in talks with with the search giant as well.

The complaint states Google’s Project Loon is based on Space Data’s patents for providing connectivity through a balloon network, one being filed in 1999, and the second in 2001.

The report on Verge, points out both patents predate Loon, “and the company does not appear to have licensed either one.”

The company says they had signed an NDA with Google in 2007, and shared trade secrets with them when in 2008, Google co-founder Larry Page and Sergey Brin visited their headquarters as well, showing interest in their technology.

However later on Google terminated all discussions with Space Data because of an article in Wall Street Journal, which hinted the search giant was interested in the technology.