Aspen Avionics Settles Eclipse Lawsuit, Names New President

Eclipse Aviation and Aspen Avionics last month settled a patent dispute over the AT300 hazard awareness display. Under the settlement agreement, Eclipse dropped a competing patent claim in exchange for 1 percent of Aspen common stock. The VLJ maker had contended that Aspen cofounders Peter Lyons and Jeff Bethel developed the AT300 product while they worked at Eclipse and, therefore, the patent for the product should belong to Eclipse. 

Aspen wasted little time after the settlement announcement in naming John Uczekaj, the former president and COO of Nordam and a past executive vice president at Honeywell, its new president. Lyons and Bethel remain with the company and are busy with work on other products. Uczekaj’s first order of business was to reveal plans “to help build the next major player in the avionics industry.” He has the credentials; at Honeywell, Uczekaj was responsible for the Primus Epic engineering and certification program.