Billion Dollar Question - Who developed GPS-Tracking Technology?

The Miami Herald has an article about who developed a tracking system that is used to monitor vehicles and objects via GPS satellite.

The owners of a now-defunct Fort Lauderdale firm, SPS Technologies, claim they spent six years developing the technology. Motorola gave the company $5 million and paid for SPS’s offices and employee salaries when they formed a joint venture with SPS in early 2000.

The suit alleges Motorola ended the joint venture a few months later when it realized how valuable the tracking technology could become, bringing the development in-house, essentially stealing SPS’s work and forcing the company to shut down.

The potential $1 Billion dollar lawsuit is expected to last about a month.

This article and other articles about this law suit makes it sound like it is about who developed “GPS technology”. But it is not. This “tracking system” simply uses GPS technology to radio back to a base station where the vehicle is at any time. Sort of like hooking up a cell phone to a GPS.

HatTip: PodCacher