Satellite Abandoned Due To Orbital Patent

EreIamJH brings news about a commercial geostationary satellite that was launched last month. Due to a launch failure, the satellite did not reach the orbit required to perform its function. The satellite's owner, SES Americom, looked for a way to salvage the satellite, but ran into an unexpected hurdle; a Boeing patent on the lunar flyby process that would be used to correct the satellite's orbit. If another company doesn't purchase the satellite, it is likely to become another piece of space junk. The European Space Agency has posted a gallery of the maps they have put together for man-made debris in orbit around the earth.

Comments

They can patent that?

[Anonymous Coward]

Damn! I'm going to have to start patenting all those 'inventions' by Newton. The first one I'm going to call gravity (TM).

Re:They can patent that?

[Anonymous Coward]

That's a bad name and will never be approved. A better one is "a procedure to transport a payload from one point to another by the use of an attractive force that is proportional to the mass of the payload and a reference object and is inversely proportional to the square of the distance of separation between the respective centers of mass". This one will be approved in a heartbeat and you can immediately use it to sue the airlines. See if you can get an injunction to prevent airplanes in flight from violating your patent. And if they crash you can sue the estates of the passengers!

Re:They can patent that?

[iminplaya]

If it crashes into a graveyard, my patented algorithm will determine where to bury the survivors.

Re:Please read whole story before writing summary

[BadAnalogyGuy]

splash the satellite

That's a euphemism for having sex with a pregnant woman. Well, it is now.

Re:method patent

[SharpFang]

Wouldn't Tarzan be a prior art?

Re:You MORONS.

[justthisdude]

Were I thus inclined, I'd go for the biggest market out there - patent a "procedure to transfer one's hereditry information onto a partial duplicate of oneself or the recreational practice thereof, through the use of a pshysio-mechanical maneuver with an individual of the opposing sex..." After all the arguments over Homosexuality being inborn or a choice, it turns out it is just a work-around to avoid patent infringement!