Parties told a federal judge today that settlement discussions are ongoing concerning litigation between LightSquared and several GPS companies.

At a pretrial conference, Judge Richard Berman of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York urged LightSquared and Garmin International, Inc., to meet with a magistrate judge and to propose the names of possible mediators.

Settlement discussions with Trimble Navigation Ltd. and Deere & Company also are continuing. Judge Berman scheduled the next conference for Oct. 8. “We are in three different places with the three different companies, and we are committed to continuing both our efforts to talk to all parties and our work to identify solutions to enable a positive resolution to all the technical and business issues,” Ashley Durmer, a LightSquared spokeswoman, said today. “In the fall, Roberson & Associates will complete its engineering tests and analysis and that will provide an opportunity for industry to look at new data and further participate in talks to find compromise.”

In July, Judge Berman denied request by LightSquared and Trimble to stay discovery in the case for 45 days to see if they could resolve technical issues that led to the litigation (TRDaily, July 28). However, he encouraged the parties to work to resolve their issues.

LightSquared filed the litigation in 2013, alleging that the GPS entities concealed the fact that their receivers were manufactured poorly and could not filter out LightSquared signals (TR, Nov. 1, 2013). – Paul Kirby, paul.kirby@wolterskluwer.com

Courtesy TR Daily