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OLPC Lawsuit-Bringer Has Past Fraud Conviction
d0ida writes "The Boston Globe has up an article about LANCOR's lawsuit over the design of the OLPC's keyboard. 'Negroponte said the lawsuit is without merit, because OLPC uses a keyboard programming technique developed in 1996, long before the Nigerian patent was filed. The founder of Lagos Analysis Corp., Ade Oyegbola, was convicted of bank fraud in Boston in 1990 and served a year in prison. Oyegbola insists his Nigerian patent is legitimate and said he plans to file a copyright-infringement lawsuit against OLPC in an American court.'"
The link to "uses a keyboard programming technique developed in 1996" links to the TFA, which says no more about it than the link text. If you're going to title a link as that, then it should lead to the technique in question...
If someone is violating your PATENT, the first thing you should do is file a COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT lawsuit! Makes perfect sense!
It doesn't matter. Every time someone files a lawsuit, a lawyer gets his wings.
What?
I get that a US patent can be litigated in any district the alleged infringer trades in (thus the reason for the eastern district of Texas). But a patent from Nigeria? Shouldn't this be tried, um, in Nigeria or the WTC?
Nigeria Registered Design Patent # RD8489Design patents are dumb. If you're gonna run a scam, why not go whole hog and assert a utility patent?
Also, Nigeria has a Patent Office? (I can see it now: "A method and device to facilitate the international transfer of funds from internet enabled persons")
riaWow, with that patent, they could sue RIAA while they're at it...
(although I could still be dreaming, did I wake up this morning?)
Unfortunately, the bank has temporarily frozen his bank accounts, but if someone could send him $5000 to cover the fees and fines...
[I couldn't resist.]
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
What most people seem to forget about, we're here talking about a design patent. Now IANAL, however I have learned a little (really a little) about patents.
There are a few issues here, that do not make sense. This is about a Nigerian patent, and patents are regional. A Nigerian patent is not valid in the US and the other way around. Within each country one has to apply for a separate patent. I wonder how they think they can sue over a Nigerian patent in a US court. They should sue in a Nigerian court instead.
Furthermore as it is a Nigerian patent, it will not influence the alleged patented product sold outside of Nigeria. Again, US courts do not come into the picture.
And then it is a design patent. This is not an invention as such, and quite close to copyright. I have to say I forgot how a design patent works exactly, but if it looks different, even though it works following the same technical principle, then it is no problem. Machines are typical objects that are patented for design.
This whole story sounds like a big mess of FUD to me, from someone who has done presumably great work to develop some input method for the Nigerian language, and now tries to cash in on that via dubious methods. I really hope the OLPC team is not held up too much by this, and that if there is a court case filed, that the courts simply do not accept it.
http://radian.org/notebook/first-deployment
Ivan Krstic just posed from Uruguay, where the the first production deployment of the XO just happened. This is what the Globe should be reporting on, not a frivolous lawsuit!
I find it interesting that this lawsuit is happening just before the first production launch and as Peru signs a deal for 260K machines! To bad that is not being picked up by major media.
Sure he can sue OLPC in an American court but we should require a large sum of good faith money first sent via Western Union. And if he wins, OLPC should pay him some insane amount above the judgment using a check and ask for the difference back in cash or via Western Union.
EvilCON - Made Famous by
"The Boston Globe has up an article about LANCOR's lawsuit over the design of the OLPC's keyboard. 'Negroponte said the lawsuit is without merit, because OLPC uses a keyboard programming technique developed in 1996, long before the Nigerian patent was filed. The founder of Lagos Analysis Corp., Ade Oyegbola, was convicted of bank fraud in Boston in 1990 and served a year in prison. Oyegbola insists his Nigerian patent is legitimate and said he plans to file a copyright-infringement lawsuit against OLPC in an American court.'" From wikipedia on argumentum ad hominem: "...consists of replying to an argument or factual claim by attacking or appealing to a characteristic or belief of the person making the argument or claim, rather than by addressing the substance of the argument or producing evidence against the claim. The process of proving or disproving the claim is thereby subverted, and the argumentum ad hominem works to change the subject." o wait, this is t3h int3rtub35 wh4t wuz i thinkin.... logic is t3h 5ux0r5.