Holy crap. The latest on the lawsuit against OLPC by Nigerian firm Lagos Analysis Corporation (Lancor) is that OLPC has been hit with a temporary injunction, meaning it can’t be distributed or sold in Nigeria “on pain of jail time.” LANCOR also wants $20 million in damages. From a charity. Groklaw insinuates something of a conspiracy theory about this lawsuit:
https://gizmodo.com/nigerian-keyboard-company-suing-olpc-for-patent-infring-327520
One of the parties named (there were four, including OLPC) in the suit originally was Alteq, who has since been dropped. Alteq is Intel’s Nigerian partner, and Intel, if you recall, is marketing the OLPC competitor, the Classmate. Here’s what Groklaw says:
https://gizmodo.com/intel-classmate-reviewed-verdict-olpc-killer-334261
Not to be too cynical or anything, but if by any chance the roadblock of this case miraculously clears up in a few months, around the time the OLPC’s with Intel chips are ready to roll into Nigeria, or some Nigerian ripoff of the OLPC is suddenly available for purchase, let’s just say my FUD/bogo-litigation meter is going to start to ring off the hook.
More likely, it’s just legal eagle version of the spammers we love to mock—to wit, their letter to the OLPC said “WE HEREBY DEMAND payment in damages in the sum of $20 million (Twenty Million USD).”
Either way, this isn’t good news for OLPC, since their lawyers now have quite the mess to slog through, though we expect they’ll be responding soon, since all of this took place in court without them, making this looking even more on the level. [Groklaw via Slashdot]
