Unanimous Jury Awards SmartSky $22.7M for Past Damages
WILMINGTON, Del., Nov. 25, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — After more than 3.5 years of litigation, an 8-person jury unanimously found that Gogo willfully infringed four patents held by SmartSky Networks for its invention of a reliable, high-speed inflight Air-to-Ground (‘ATG’) internet connectivity system that was the first to operate in the unlicensed radio frequency spectrum. The jury also upheld the validity of SmartSky’s patents. The jury determined on Nov. 21, 2025, that SmartSky was owed approximately $22.7 million in past damages for Gogo’s unlawful use of SmartSky’s technology at the conclusion of a 5-day trial in U.S. District Court in Delaware.
“As SmartSky has long maintained and demonstrated in practice, its patented technology has now been proven, in court, as the key to unlock unlicensed spectrum for ATG use,” said Ryan Stone, who co-founded and led SmartSky Networks.
“It is a big win for SmartSky and the patent system, demonstrating how patents can help protect the rights of smaller inventors, even in markets dominated by large competitors, which benefits everyone and helps to drive innovation,” said attorney Rodger Smith, of Morris Nichols, who argued the case for SmartSky.
In addition to the $22.7 million reasonable royalty for past damages, SmartSky intends to seek enhanced damages based on the jury’s willfulness finding, as well as a running royalty for Gogo’s continuing infringements of SmartSky’s ” ‘639 patent” and its ” ‘077 patent,” which do not expire until 2033 and 2035, respectively.
SmartSky originally sued Gogo for patent infringement in February 2022, in the US District Court in Delaware after Gogo began selling a product marketed as “Gogo 5G” that was covered by SmartSky’s patents. Prior to that, Gogo had long held a dominant position for ATG connectivity in the business aviation marketplace through its exclusive federal license of 3 MHz of radio frequency spectrum. The jury unanimously agreed with SmartSky’s argument that Gogo had willfully infringed upon each of the 7 patent claims at issue, which included infringement of 4 patents, in 3 families of patents issued by the US Patent and Trademark Office, which describe and claim an inflight ATG solution that operates using 60 MHz of unlicensed spectrum in the 2.4 GHz band. The jury explicitly rejected Gogo claims that the patents were invalid.
SOURCE SmartSky Networks
