January 1, 2008 9:37 AM PST
Nigerian firm demands $20 million from One Laptop Per Child
Remember that Nigerian company headed by a convicted felon that sued the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project for patent infringement?
Well, the suit has finally been brought...in a Nigerian court...with $20 million in damages on the table.
The cheekiness is breathtaking.
As Groklaw reports, there is also:
an injunction blocking OLPC from distribution in Nigeria. They have the latter at the moment from an interim injunction, as they call it there, from an ex parte motion Lancor filed, meaning OLPC wasn't there, didn't get a chance to tell its story in court, and based entirely on an attorney affidavit and some papers filed. The interim can last many, many months, and I think that may be the plan. OLPC, as I understand it, hasn't even been served yet. But I've learned that OLPC will aggressively respond shortly. Others listed as co-defendants, like the Growing Business Foundation, have been served and their offices searched for "evidence," which is the process there.
With Nigeria's record on corruption, who would want to litigate anything there? This is ridiculous...or would be if it weren't actually happening.
I usually look to the U.S. to demonstrate the worst of legal buffoonery. Glad to see Nigeria is trying to catch up.
Matt Asay brings a decade of in-the-trenches open-source business and legal experience to The Open Road, with an emphasis on emerging open-source business strategies and opportunities. Matt is chief operating officer at Canonical, the company behind the Ubuntu Linux operating system. Prior to Canonical, Matt was general manager of the Americas division and vice president of business development at Alfresco, an open-source applications company. He is a member of the CNET Blog Network and is not an employee of CNET. Disclosure. You can follow Matt on Twitter @mjasay. 
- by RainCaster January 3, 2008 9:17 AM PST
- Moving up the food chain I see.
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