In the news:
Originally published February 14, 2012 at 6:55 AM | Page modified February 14, 2012 at 9:46 PM
Son of ex-McDonnell Douglas CEO sues Boeing and Insitu
William "Randy" McDonnell is seeking $160 million in damages from Boeing and Insitu, alleging they infringed on his patents for an unmanned drone landing system.
ST. LOUIS — A member of the St. Louis family that ran McDonnell Douglas is suing Boeing, which bought the aerospace company in 1997, alleging Boeing infringed on his patents for an unmanned drone-landing system.
William "Randy" McDonnell is seeking $160 million in damages from Boeing and its Insitu unit, http://bit.ly/x8EGjb ">The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported Tuesday.
Boeing denied the allegations and said it will fight the lawsuit. "We believe our products don't infringe on the patents in question and believe the court will agree with us," said company spokesman John Dern.
Insitu, based in Bingen, Klickitat County, produces the Boeing ScanEagle, Integrator and other drones deployed by the U.S. and by military forces of Australia and Canada.
Randy McDonnell is an aeronautical engineer and son of Sanford McDonnell, who was chairman and chief executive of McDonnell Douglas from 1972 to 1988. He is also the cousin of John McDonnell, the McDonnell Douglas chairman and CEO who guided the corporation through its merger with Boeing and who still holds a seat on Boeing's board of directors.
The suit was filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in St. Louis by Advanced Aerospace Technologies, which is owned by Randy McDonnell. It claims Boeing and Insitu knowingly encroached the patent McDonnell obtained for a "skyhook retrieval system" that enables drones to set down without a runway.
"I am greatly disappointed that Insitu, and then Boeing, declined to pay the compensation due for their use of my inventions and that I now must resort to court action," McDonnell said in a statement issued through his attorney.
McDonnell filed a companion lawsuit in Washington, D.C., asking the federal government to reimburse McDonnell for profits Insitu and Boeing earned as independent contractors operating drones on behalf of the U.S. military.
He contends he came up with the engineering designs in the 1990s. Patents owned by his company were issued in 2005 and 2006.
The suits claim that he shared details of the design in 2000 after learning that Insitu had encountered "difficulties" with its own retrieval system. At the time, the patent was pending.
