Sendo Sues Orange for Patent Infringement

captnjameskirk writes "RCR Wireless News is reporting that Sendo is suing European carrier Orange for patent infringement involving the circuit board design within the phones. As the article points out, Sendo also sued Microsoft for allegedly stealing their technology for use in the Smartphone OS." Back in January, we also had some more information on the case between Sendo and Microsoft.

Comments

No friends

[CausticWindow]

Sendo isn't good at making friends. Just as important in business as elsewhere.

They probably need cash bad.

Re:No friends

[gilesjuk]

They're small and signed a rather silly contract (meaning M$ pockets all their IP if they go bust). Ideal company for Microsoft to run down and swallow up. Making friends has nothing to do with it, they just picked the wrong business partner.

MS is going to payoff Sendo, right?

[MongooseCN]

MS paid SCO for the license to use some vague part of SCO's unix code. So does this mean MS will pay Sendo for directly using Sendo's technology in its own OS?

hope they get a bunch

[afidel]

I hope they get as much blood as they can from MS and a crapload from Orange as well if Orange knew that the stuff they were getting from MS was sendo's property. This was dirty business at its worst.

Wait two seconds before you spote off

[kramer2718]

I know that for many Slashdot readers, the reaction over a patent lawsuit defaults to "those bastards are filing frivolous lawsuits," but wait a minute before you badmouth sendo.

The article said nothing beyond that the claim regards the design of an internal circuit board. Sendo's claim might be legit' it might be BS. We have no idea which at this point.

If anyone actually knows anything substatial about the claim, please enlighten us all.

Stupid patent system

[whereiswaldo]

Sounds like another case of "I have a patent and I intend on doing nothing with it. In fact, I will sue anybody who tries to do anything along the lines of what my patent describes. I will stifle innovation."

Re:Stupid patent system

[squiggleslash]

In what way does it sound like that?

Sendo is teetering on the brink of bankruptsy after developing a mobile phone with Microsoft which could have been a viable money-spinner had it not been for Microsoft repeatedly, and almost certainly deliberately, stalling Sendo. Microsoft had made an agreement with Sendo that should either party go bust, the other would pick up the IP rights associated with the project.

Sendo is suing Orange because Orange is using technology Sendo invented and paid a fortune developing. Sendo has every right to do so. Orange has the technology, almost certainly, because Microsoft gave it to them. Orange needs to be slapped down for taking that technology, and they in turn need to slap down Microsoft for, yet again, another obvious case of dirty, rotten, dishonest business practices.

I say go Sendo. They deserve to win. They deserve to recoup their losses on this project from those who've taken their work.

Re:First line of the article...

[bad_fx]

PS: Yes, there's not really anything wrong with "another" in that sentence. My real problem with it was the "upstart" and "lashed out," neither of which were required for it to make sense, and both of which seem to carry negative connotations. (which is really why it caught my eye in the first place.) Consider:

Mobile-phone upstart Sendo lashed out with another lawsuit...

or...

Mobile phone company Sendo today started legal proceedings in London against Orange...

which is from the register article which Dusty kindly linked to. Which one makes you think you're going to get a neutral account of the whole thing... hmmm?

Re:Sendo, AKA SCO

[Daniel Phillips]

Sendo *must* be a subsidiary of SCO...

Follow the story. Sendo is another rape victim of Microsoft. As I understand it, Microsoft contracted with Sendo to develop the Microsoft Smartphone[tm], and slipped a clause into the contract that said if Sendo goes bankrupt, Microsoft gets the IP. Microsoft then proceeded to try to drive Sendo into bankruptcy. It didn't work, but Microsoft had access to the designs and software, and handed the hardware design off to another company, Orange, to manufacture the phone. And obviously, to have less of a share in it than Sendo would have. Sendo was understandably upset.

All the above is as I understand the story, from the bits that have leaked out. Seems to fit the pattern though. I must say, I'm not at all unhappy to see Microsoft's phone come under a cloud of questionable IP ownership, given the cynical way they're supporting SCO's evil attack on Linux. And also given the likelyhood that Microsoft would attempt to leverage its desktop OS monopoly to establish itself in the phone market. And also the likelyhood that Microsoft's phones will be buggy.

So I say: go Sendo.

The reason Sendo is suing Orange.

[goldcd]

Is not because they are desperately trying to get their hands on every bit of money they can - it's to send a mesage to other networks considering supplying the MS line of phones. The case should be (and is) between MS and Sendo, except MS being a big corporation is quite willing to spin it out with delays and had no real reason previously to try to come to a quick settlement. They could just carry on selling 'their' phones and keep pushing Sendo away.
Now Sendo have been smart here by suing Orange - any other network operator who is considering which phones to carry is going to be much less likely to select the MS one. They've got no shortage of choices, the MS phone isn't particularly wonderful and now comes with the extreme likelihood of a lawsuit. Why would they want to risk it?
Sendo will now remove most of MS's customers. MS will be in the position that until they settle the lawsuit with Sendo, nobody is going to buy their phones from them. I suspect cutting their income will be an effective way of convincing them to come to the settlement table with a large sack of cash for Sendo.