It’s been an interesting couple of days on the Perseus. The ship is in a Norwegian fjord conducting some trials with the VLS equipment. Earlier in the week we received the news that the company had been successful in winning their law suit served by a rival company concerning the patent issue on the VLS. This was the legal procedure that had resulted in the writ being served on the equipment while the vessel was in Brazil. Although the court case was only relevant to the use of the equipment in the UK, the terms and wording of the decision suggest that any other suits in other parts of the world will also be un-successful (I particularly liked the use of the phrase “lacking in novelty and inventiveness” in reference to the patent that we were being sued against!) Result: Scotland 1, France 0! The sea trials that we are currently conducting have been… shall we say.. interesting? Although we have solved some of our operational problems, there are still one or two new ones that have come to light… nothing is ever easy! Needless to say, they are keeping me busy (and out of my bed for long periods!)
