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Artemis 1 Mission Space Launch System (SLS) missile
Frank Micheaux/NASA
Wilson Aerospace, a small, family-run instrumentation company based in Colorado, has been suing Boeing over a wide range of lawsuits related to stolen intellectual property over the past two decades.
The company’s lawsuit centers around specially designed multiple tools that Wilson says it built for Boeing. The complaint says Boeing, in turn, “rewarded Wilson’s efforts by stealing” the IP address associated with multiple devices. Wilson filed suit in Washington federal court Wednesday.
The scope of the damages is difficult to quantify, according to one of the company’s attorneys, Pete Flowers. However, Boeing’s actions hurt Wilson “hundreds of millions of dollars,” he told CNBC.
Wilson’s complaint alleges that its instruments — used on NASA projects including the International Space Station and a moon rocket for Space Launch Systems — helped Boeing win billions in award contracts and fees from the government. Wilson also claims that the fake version of the instruments made by Boeing led to leaks on the International Space Station and the SLS — and “put lives at risk,” including those of astronauts.
The company has filed 10 lawsuits against Boeing, including claims of copyright infringement, embezzlement, theft of trade secrets, and fraud.
In a statement to CNBC, a Boeing spokesperson said that “the lawsuit filed by Wilson is riddled with inaccuracies and omissions,” but declined to share details when asked.
“We will vigorously defend this in court,” Boeing said.
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Led by David Wilson, who founded the eponymous company in 1999, the Colorado-based company has created specialized aerospace tools such as the “Fluid Fit Torque Device,” or FFTD, which is used to tighten and loosen fittings such as those in “narrow, which are difficult to separate “areas of access on spacecraft.” Wilson has developed various forms of FFTD, as well as other instruments and assemblies, for use on the International Space Station, the experimental module of the space shuttle era, SPACEHAB, as well as the Starliner capsule and Boeing’s Dreamliner.
The centerpiece of the suit is work Wilson did for Boeing from 2014 to 2016 using the FFTD product to solve the problem of attaching rocket engines to the SLS “with the exact amount of torque.” Wilson alleges that the aerospace giant downloaded proprietary information, cut off communications with the company, and made “fake” figures that Boeing passed on to NASA.
The complaint alleges that “although Boeing has paid Wilson for some of its work over the years, Boeing’s primary approach has been to steal Wilson’s intellectual property through deception and other illegal means, rather than compensation.”
In addition, the alleged theft resulted in mismatched ingredients and “inferior products”. According to the complaint, “mismatched instruments caused liquid leaks that consistently delayed the launch of the SLS, costing NASA hundreds of millions of dollars while unfairly enriching Boeing.”
The 74-page complaint refers to correspondence with several Boeing employees, including one who emailed in September 2020 that Boeing had misused Wilson’s IP and created “safety concerns for in-orbit instruments.” Among those alleged instruments, Wilson’s attorney, Lance Estrella, told CNBC that an earlier copy of the FFTD is believed to be stuck on the International Space Station after it became trapped due to Boeing using incorrect calibration data after copying the instrument.
Wilson cited previous litigation as examples of a “wider pattern of criminal behavior by Boeing,” such as theft. Lockheed Martin’s business secrets in 2006.
“We absolutely believe that there are other companies, perhaps small American owned companies, that have been impacted by the same activity within Boeing,” Wilson Flowers’ attorney told CNBC.
Read the full version of Wilson’s complaint below:
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