[gozur88]

I had to laugh about

>This concept of “if you control the altitude you can actually control roughly where they go” was something Space Data demonstrated in February 2008 to Larry Page personally with over a dozen balloons in the sky which were actively flying at Space Data’s network control center."

for just this reason. The "concept" is, and has been for 300 years, the realization that allowed balloonists to steer their craft.

I suspect they have a point, though, even if it's not well made. If they've done enough experimentation to prove they can maintain the position of their balloons at all times (or nearly so) well enough to create a reliable network, that probably qualifies as a trade secret. Knowing that something is possible gets you halfway to copying it.

[icebraining]

Space Data themselves made a public presentation[1] of their network of balloon with transceivers (called SkySite) years before Google started their project, so the proof that it was possible was already public information.

It's not clear to me exactly what has Google allegedly infringed upon.

[1] http://apps.fcc.gov/ecfs/document/view?id=6520007226