SpaceX has filed documents seeking to trademark the name “Starlink” for a satellite network that could provide global broadband access to data and video services as well as Earth imagery and remote sensing.
The California company’s satellite unit operates primarily out of facilities in Redmond, Wash., and is working stealthily to develop a constellation of thousands of satellites that would be launched into low Earth orbit.
When SpaceX’s billionaire founder, Elon Musk, announced the multibillion-dollar satellite project during a Seattle visit in 2015, he said it would open the way for low-cost broadband internet access around the world and potentially provide the revenue for the company’s Mars settlement program.
But the trademark application, filed in August, also leaves the door open for “satellite photography services” and “remote sensing services, namely, aerial surveying through the use of satellites.”
