Pendrell Corporation (formerly NASDAQ:PCO, delisted Nov 2017) is an

intellectual property Intellectual property (IP) is a category of property that includes intangible creations of the human intellect. There are many types of intellectual property, and some countries recognize more than others. The best-known types are patents, cop ...

(IP) investment, advisory services and asset management firm. The company develops and implements strategies to acquire, commercialize, manage, divest and license IP. The company, formerly ICO Global Communications, is based in Kirkland, Washington. In June, 2011, Pendrell acquired the Ovidian Group, an intellectual property strategic advisory services firm. In October, 2011, Pendrell acquired ContentGuard, a leading developer of digital rights management technologies with more than 260 patents. More than 50 percent of the world's handset manufacturers have licensing agreements in place with ContentGuard.

Corporate history

Founded in January 1995, ICO Global Communications, planned to build a

mobile-satellite service Mobile-satellite service (MSS, or mobile-satellite radiocommunication service) is – according to Article 1.25 of the International Telecommunication Union's Radio Regulations – "A radiocommunication service * between mobile earth stations and ...

(MSS) constellation in

medium Earth orbit A medium Earth orbit (MEO) is an geocentric orbit, Earth-centered orbit with an altitude above a low Earth orbit (LEO) and below a high Earth orbit (HEO) – between above sea level.

(in two 45°-inclined orthogonal planes), and had contracted

Boeing Satellite Development Center The Boeing Satellite Development Center is a major business unit of Boeing Defense, Space & Security. It brought together Boeing satellite operations with that of GM Hughes Electronics' Space and Communications division in El Segundo, Califo ...

(then Hughes) for 12 spacecraft in July of that year — ten operational spacecraft and two in-orbit spares. ICO filed for

Chapter 11 bankruptcy Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code (Title 11 of the United States Code) permits reorganization under the bankruptcy laws of the United States. Such reorganization, known as Chapter 11 bankruptcy, is available to every business, whe ...

protection in August 1999, but emerged as New ICO in May 2000, following investments by

Craig McCaw Craig McCaw (born August 11, 1949) is an American businessman and entrepreneur, a pioneer in the cellular phone industry. He is the founder of McCaw Cellular (now part of AT&T Mobility) and Clearwire Corporation (now part of T-Mobile via the Sprin ...

and others. ICO has pursued plans to build and launch a geosynchronous satellite to cover North America, supplemented by an ancillary terrestrial component. ICO G1 launched on April 14, 2008, and ICO's application for an ancillary terrestrial component was approved by the Federal Communications Commission in January 2009. In June 2011 ICO Global Communications was renamed to Pendrell Corporation ().

Early satellites

The first spacecraft, a Hughes HS 601 designated ICO F-1, was lost due to a

Sea Launch Sea Launch was a multinational—Norway, Russia, Ukraine, United States—spacecraft launch company founded in 1995 that provided orbital launch services from 1999–2014. The company used a mobile maritime launch platform for equatorial lau ...

anomaly on March 12, 2000. In September 2000, ICO contracted Hughes for three additional spacecraft, and Hughes agreed to modify the 11 remaining spacecraft from the original contract to support an ICO re-design of the system. Hughes Space Systems subsequently became a subsidiary of the Boeing Corporation. On June 19, 2001, the second spacecraft, ICO F2, was successfully launched by an

Atlas II Atlas II was a member of the Atlas family of launch vehicles, which evolved from the successful Atlas missile program of the 1950s. The Atlas II was a direct evolution of the Atlas I, featuring longer first stage tanks, higher-performing engines ...

AS from

Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Cape Canaveral Space Force Station (CCSFS) is an installation of the United States Space Force's Space Launch Delta 45, located on Cape Canaveral in Brevard County, Florida. Headquartered at the nearby Patrick Space Force Base, the statio ...

. The remaining spacecraft are in storage in various stages of near completion, and litigation between ICO and Boeing involving the ICO MEO satellites went to trial in June, 2008. In October, 2008, a jury awarded ICO $371 million in damages and $236 million in punitive damages in verdicts which found Boeing guilty of fraud, tortious interference and breach of contract. The

Los Angeles County Superior Court The Superior Court of California, County of Los Angeles, is the California superior court with jurisdiction over Los Angeles County, which includes the city of Los Angeles. It is the largest single unified trial court in the United States. The ...

finalized the verdict in March, 2009 in an amount totaling $603 million.

G1 satellite

The ICO G1 satellite was built by

Space Systems/Loral SSL, formerly Space Systems/Loral, LLC (SS/L), of Palo Alto, California, is a wholly owned manufacturing subsidiary of Maxar Technologies. SSL designs and builds satellites and space systems for a wide variety of government and commercial cust ...

, based on the

Loral 1300 The SSL 1300, previously the LS-1300 and the FS-1300, is a satellite bus produced by Maxar Technologies. Total broadcast power ranges from 5 to 25 kW, and the platform can accommodate from 12 to 150 transponders. The SSL 1300 is a modular platf ...

platform. A contract to launch the satellite was signed with

Lockheed Martin The Lockheed Martin Corporation is an American aerospace, arms, defense, information security, and technology corporation with worldwide interests. It was formed by the merger of Lockheed Corporation with Martin Marietta in March 1995. It ...

, who announced plans to launch the satellite on an

Atlas V Atlas V is an expendable launch system and the fifth major version in the Atlas (rocket family), Atlas launch vehicle family. It was originally designed by Lockheed Martin, now being operated by United Launch Alliance (ULA), a joint venture be ...

launch vehicle, flying in the 421 configuration. Launch, from Space Launch Complex 41 at the

occurred at 20:12:00

GMT Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) is the mean solar time at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, London, counted from midnight. At different times in the past, it has been calculated in different ways, including being calculated from noon; as a cons ...

on April 4, 2008. The satellite separated from the carrier rocket 30 minutes and 49 seconds later, completing a successful launch. It is currently in a nominal

geosynchronous orbit A geosynchronous orbit (sometimes abbreviated GSO) is an Earth-centered orbit with an orbital period that matches Earth's rotation on its axis, 23 hours, 56 minutes, and 4 seconds (one sidereal day). The synchronization of rotation and orbital ...

. At the time, ICO G1 was the largest commercial satellite ever launched.ICO Launches New Era in Mobile Satellite Services - ico.com - April 14, 2008
A larger satellite based on the same Loral 1300 platform,

TerreStar-1 TerreStar-1 is an American communications satellite which was operated by TerreStar Corporation. It was constructed by Space Systems/Loral, based on the LS-1300S bus, and carries E/ F band (IEEE S band) transponders which will be used to provid ...

, was successfully launched on July 1, 2009.

G1

The G1 satellite is intended to support a wide range of mobile voice, video and data services, and covers the continental United States, Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands. Alpha trials of this service began in 2008 in

Las Vegas, Nevada Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vegas ...

and

Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina The Research Triangle, or simply The Triangle, are both common nicknames for a metropolitan area in the Piedmont region of North Carolina in the United States, anchored by the cities of Raleigh and Durham and the town of Chapel Hill, home to t ...

References

External links

Official ICO website

NSSDC Master Catalog - ICO F2 - 2001-026A

NSSDC Master Catalog - ICO G1 - 2008-016A

AT&T CruiseCast

One of the Satellite Access Node (SAN) at Banyuurip, Indosat Facilities-Indonesia
{{Telecommunications Communications satellite operators

Corporate history

Early satellites

G1 satellite

G1

See also

References

External links