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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.
Hey Orangeo, Sendo your casho to uso!
Sendo *must* be a subsidiary of SCO...
Wouldn't it save bandwidth if you reported the companies that aren't suing each other?
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
Strangely enough, Sendo is also reporting this.
We have tried to solve the matter in an amicable way,â said Hugh Brogan, Sendoâ(TM)s chief executive officer.
Translated: We tried to extort millions of dollars before filing suit, and they said no. Reminds me of IBM's past amicable actions.
Stupid people make stupid things profitable.
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?
Outdoor digital photography, mostly in New Engl
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.
There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order. Starting now.
Mobile-phone upstart Sendo lashed out with another lawsuit...
...lashed out... another lawsuit..?
Doesn't that sound a little like biased reporting to anybody else?
Or is it just this Orange one? Was n't one of the complaints Sendo had was that basically MS was taking all of it's good ideas and giving them to Orange (which is also tied into MS). Of course MS had a cross licensing thing with Sendo, but I wonder if this patent was part of that deal?
Maybe Sendo found an area where they did n't get completely screwed over by MS?
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.
http://yetanotherpoliticalrant.blogspot.com
Someone should develop a "Free Patent Foundation" - with parallels to the GNU, but for intellectual discoveries, inventions, etc. Though these wouldn't make the developers a lot of money, it could really benefit humankind.
Sendo has tech sharing agreement with MS.
Orange has tech sharing agreement with MS.
MS hands over Sendo tech to Orange holds back obligations to Sendo.
Sendo gives up on it's own phone with MS software due to above.
Sendo sues Orange for patent infringement.
So this is n't your average money grabbing patent suit.
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.
Actually, this wasn't. They had an agreement with MS to take this product to market. Unfortunately they signed a contract with a suicide clause which indicated that if they went under, MS got all their goods. Of course, Microsoft was supposed to pay them to keep them from going under...
So naturally Microsoft didn't pay them, they went under, MS took their stuff, and Sendo sued MS over breach of contract.
Now, at this point, the rights to the technology should be up in the air. If Microsoft broke the terms of the contract by not paying Sendo, then the contract is void and the IP is still Sendo's. But Microsoft, being the arrogant bastard it is, didn't wait for the lawsuit to end, and assumed that they could dole out the big bucks to make sure the suit ended in their favor. So they gave Sendo's IP to Orange to take Sendo's product to market.
So, yes, this is a case of "I will sue anyone who does what my patent describes", but for once, they're justified in biting back.
If I have been able to see further than others, it is because I bought a pair of binoculars.
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.
You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
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.