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 vice president of business development at Alfresco, a company that develops open-source software for content management. He is a member of the CNET Blog Network and is not an employee of CNET. Disclosure. You can follow Matt on Twitter @mjasay. 
No wonder they are the most corrupted country in the world.
MY NAME IS ADEBOLA. I WOULD LIKE TO SUE YOU FOR TWENTY (20) MILLION DOLLARS US. I KNOW YOU ARE A GOD FERING PERSON THAT I CAN TRUST. IF YOU SEND ME $2000 FOR SHIPPING, I WILL SEND YOU THE LEGAL BRIEFS OF THIS CASE.
GOD BLESS YOU AND YOUR BEUTIFUL FAMILY,
ADEBOLA
Man.. That's funny stuff!
Sorry... I know - insensitive and all, but if the Nigerian Government wants help from OLPC, then they need to squash this, not encourage it. There are plenty of countries in the world that would benefit from the work OLPC is doing, they won't feel the loss of Nigeria, but Nigeria will.
- by RainCaster January 3, 2008 9:17 AM PST
- Moving up the food chain I see.
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