What kind of company is SpaceX and who are the owners
Space Exploration Technologies Corporation (SpaceX) is an American company that works in the field of space transport construction, a manufacturer of Falcon family launch vehicles and Dragon spaceships. Headquartered in Hawthorne, California, USA. The company was created by engineer and inventor Elon Musk.
SpaceX has developed the Falcon 1, Falcon 9, and Falcon Heavy launch vehicles with the goal of making them reusable from the very beginning, as well as the Dragon cargo spacecraft designed to resupply the International Space Station, the Starlink satellite Internet network (which provides access to the Internet. ), delivered people to the International Space Station Dragon 2.
According to 2012 data, 2/3 of the company belongs to Elon Musk. About 10% of the company is owned by Google and Fidelity Ventures. Owners also include Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Founders Fund, Valor Equity Partners, Capricorn and others.
In early 2002, Elon Musk began recruiting for his new space company, soon to be named SpaceX. Musk approached rocket engineer Tom Mueller (later SpaceX’s technical director of propulsion) and offered him to become his business partner. Mueller agreed to work for Musk, and SpaceX was born. SpaceX was originally headquartered in a warehouse in El Segundo, California.
Research and development of the Starlink project
The division of SpaceX, engaged in the research, development and production of satellite systems. In 2015, SpaceX began the development of the Starlink project, the test prototypes of TINTIN were successfully launched into Earth orbit on February 22, 2018.
Starlink is a global satellite system for providing high-speed broadband satellite Internet access in places where it was unreliable, expensive or completely unavailable.
The Starlink program, which initially had a purely civilian purpose, was actually created to provide Internet access in regions remote from cities, sparsely populated areas with poorly developed infrastructure, as well as on small ships and island territories located in vast expanses of water.
It can also be used to transmit uncensored information to people living under autocratic regimes. But it is unlikely that the creators of Starlink did not expect that its services would be needed in the war zone in the heart of Europe, after russia deliberately destroyed the electricity supply and Internet communication in Ukraine at the beginning of the invasion.
Starlink is not the first system to offer satellite Internet, but it has some advantages over the competition, including comparative ease of use. In addition, the data comes continuously and at an impressive speed. This is due to the fact that Starlink satellites orbit the Earth at an altitude of 328 to 614 km, which is much lower than that of competitors.
For comparison, satellites of the Hughesnet company revolve around the Earth in a geostationary orbit (from 35,000 km). Accordingly, data transfer takes about ten times longer than when using Starlink.
The first appearance of Starlink in Ukraine
SpaceX submitted the Starlink brand for registration in Ukraine in 2020, and received the rights to it in August 2022. Full name “Starlink Ukraine” Limited Liability Company. After the beginning of the full-scale invasion, Starlink began to provide satellite Internet services in Ukraine.
The Ministry of Digital reported that thousands of stations help the Armed Forces to stay in touch and implement special operations, support the work of critical energy and telecommunications facilities, health care facilities and even the sowing campaign, as well as bring the liberated territories back to life.
In addition, hundreds of “Starlinks” were sent to the de-occupied Kherson so that the locals had access to the 
Internet and stayed in touch.
In February, Minister of Digital Transformation Mykhailo Fedorov said that there are no problems with the operation of Starlink terminals. Fedorov also called Musk one of the biggest private donors to the future victory of Ukraine. Musk himself emphasized that Starlink is the “communication backbone” of Ukraine, especially on the front line, where communication is almost destroyed.
Court case for TM Starlink
Ukrainian LLC “Starlink”, which provides IT services: IT consulting, IT outsourcing, IT integration, and also provides domain names and develops web applications for online business.
“Starlink” LLC was registered in the Unified State Register on May 25, 2009, and the “Starlink” trademark has existed for more than 12 years – the application for registration was submitted in March 2010, and the registration of the mark for goods and services took place in February 2011.
The founder of Ukrainian “Starlink” is Serhiy Dulytskyi. He said that Musk’s lawyers came out on him even before the start of a full-scale war. They demanded that he give up the trademark in favor of the American Starlink.
“Starlink is a world-renowned brand. Therefore, give back”, the American company explained.
And already in October 2022, Elon Musk’s American company SpaceX filed a lawsuit against Starlink LLC and Ukrpatent. There they demanded early termination of the Ukrainian trademark “Starlink”.
From the materials of the case pending at the Kyiv Commercial Court, No. 910/10906/22 in the lawsuit No. 910/10906/22 in the lawsuit of Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (Plaintiff) to the Limited Liability Company “Starlink” and the State Enterprise “Ukrainian Institute of Intellectual Property”, according to which the Plaintiff requested:
– prematurely partially terminate the validity of the certificate of Ukraine No. 135574 dated 25.02.2011 for the Trademark regarding the entire list of services of classes 37, 38, 42 of the International Classification of Goods and Services for registration of marks;
– oblige SE “Ukrainian Institute of Intellectual Property” to make appropriate changes to the State Register of Certificates of Ukraine for signs for goods and services regarding the early partial termination of the certificate of Ukraine No. 135574 dated 25.02.2011 for the Trademark regarding the entire list of services 37, 38, 42 classes of the International Classification of Goods and Services for trademark registration.
“Starlink is a world-renowned brand. Therefore, give back“
But already on 30.11.2022, the plaintiff applied to the court with a statement about taking measures to secure the claim by way of:
– prohibiting the State Organization “Ukrainian National Office of Intellectual Property and Innovation” from making any changes to the State Register of Trademark Certificates of Ukraine regarding the transfer of exclusive intellectual property rights to the trademark under Certificate of Ukraine No. 135574 dated February 25, 2011 to other persons and regarding termination validity of certificate of Ukraine No. 135574 dated 25.02.2011 in connection with the refusal of them by the owner in whole or in part at the request of the Limited Liability Company “Starlink”, until the court decision in this case takes legal effect;
– prohibiting the limited liability company “Starlink” to fully or partially transfer the exclusive property rights of intellectual property to the trademark with Certificate of Ukraine No. 135574 dated 25.02.2011 and to terminate the validity of the certificate of Ukraine No. 135574 dated 25.02.2011 by renouncing them in whole or in part until collection the court’s decision in this case is legally binding.
That is, Elon Musk’s company SpaceX unjustifiably demanded the early termination of the Ukrainian trademark “StarLink” of the Starlink Limited Liability Company.
Space Exploration Technologies Corp. claimed that the disputed trademark “StarLink” has not been used in Ukraine for more than the last five years in relation to services of classes 37, 38 and 42 of the International Classification of Goods and Services (ICTP), for which it is registered, except for the following services of class 42 of the ICTP:
– computer virus protection services; installation (installation) of computer programs; consulting on computer software; consulting on computer equipment.
According to the arguments presented in the lawsuit, the legally protected interest of Space Exploration Technologies Corp. was that the latter intends to register and use the designation “STARLINK” as a trademark in Ukraine for goods and services related to those for which the Trademark is registered, in such a way as not to infringe the rights of third parties. And LLC “Starlink” violates the legally protected interest of Space Exploration Technologies Corp. regarding the desire to carry out business activities under the trademark “STARLINK” and its further legal use on the territory of Ukraine.
That is, in other words, SpaceX submitted an application for registration of the “STARLINK” trademark in Ukraine, and the long-registered “StarLink” trademark apparently interfered with such plans.
Also, motivating the stated lawsuit, Space Exploration Technologies Corp. argued that there are no good reasons for not using the trademark “StarLink” for all services for which it is registered, which gives sufficient grounds, in the opinion of Space Exploration Technologies Corp. for early partial termination of the “StarLink” trademark on the territory of Ukraine in relation to all services for which it is registered, except for the following services of class 42 of the MKTP: computer virus protection services; installation (installation) of computer programs; consulting on computer software; consulting on computer technology, in court proceedings.
During the trial, the court considered all the evidence available in the case file, factual data and arguments of the parties, and came to the conclusion that “Starlink” LLC proved, and Space Exploration Technologies Corp. did not refute, the fact of using the disputed designation “StarLink” according to certificate No. 135574 on the territory of Ukraine for goods of classes 37, 38 and 42 of the MKTP, and therefore the claims cannot be satisfied.
Thus, on March 18, 2023, LLC “Starlink” won the case in the first instance, based on the decision of the Commercial Court of the city of Kyiv, which refused SpaceX to satisfy the lawsuit regarding the early termination of the Ukrainian trademark “StarLink”.
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