Company suing OLPC wants $20 million to settle
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A company suing the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) Association for patent infringement has asked for $20 million to settle claims that the nonprofit had copied its keyboard.Lagos Analysis Corp., or Lancor, is still trying to settle after&#160;filing the patent lawsuit&#160;in Federal High Court, Lagos Judicial Division in Nigeria, said Ad&#233; Oyegbola, Lancor&#39;s CEO. Lancor, now based in Natick, Massachusetts, has offices in Nigeria and owns a Nigerian patent for a four-shift keyboard, allowing computers to better handle multiple languages, Oyegbola said.Oyegbola on Wednesday confirmed information published on the Groklaw blog saying that in August his company had asked OLPC for $20 million. That figure was based on OLPC information on potential distribution in Nigeria, Oyegbola said.Nigeria, in July 2006,&#160;placed an order for 1 million of the laptops, but the Nigerian government is now reviewing that decision. Lancor&#39;s Konyin Multilingual Keyboards sell for $19.95, meaning 1 million of them would be worth approximately $20 million.Lancor in December obtained a temporary injunction against OLPC distributing its laptop in the country.&quot;We didn&#39;t start the process because we&#39;re looking for the money,&quot; Oyegbola said. &quot;It doesn&#39;t make sense for us not to protect our intellectual property.&quot;Lancor, in its lawsuit, accuses OLPC of illegal reverse engineering its multilingual keyboard.But OLPC had not yet begun selling its laptop at the time of the demand, OLPC&#39;s lawyer wrote in a letter published on Groklaw. &quot;I feel obliged to note that, given the fact that OLPC has sold no multilingual keyboards, and that, according to Lancor&#39;s Web site, its multilingual keyboard sells for $19.95, your demand for $20 million is not well founded,&quot; lawyer Bruce Parker of the Foley Hoag law firm wrote.Groklaw&#39;s Pamela Jones, a frequent critic of patent lawsuits against open-source projects, called the lawsuit &quot;ridiculous.&quot;&quot;In short, they apparently jumped the gun, sending the dunning letter before OLPC had even shipped anything, not to mention that OLPC is a charity, not a business, and asking for money in a sum that doesn&#39;t match reality,&quot; she wrote.A OLPC spokeswoman didn&#39;t immediately respond to a request for a comment.Oyegbola said he hopes his company can still settle with OLPC. &quot;We&#39;re hoping it doesn&#39;t get to [a trial],&quot; he said. &quot;It&#39;s in the hands of the lawyers now.&quot;The evidence against OLPC is sketchy, Jones wrote on Groklaw. She questioned Oyegbola&#39;s motives, saying his actions may aid a rival project by Intel.&quot;Maybe this doomed litigation effort will last just long enough for a Nigerian knock-off of the OLPC, or the&#160;OLPC on Intel, to become ready for release,&quot; she wrote. &quot;Maybe it&#39;s just about money a couple of guys want. Who knows why people do things like this?&quot;The goal of the nonprofit OLPC, founded by Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor Nicholas Negroponte, is to donate laptops to children in developing nations. Through Dec. 31, residents of the U.S. and Canada could&#160;donate $400 and get one laptop for themselves, while sending a second to a child overseas.
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LOS ANGELES  - Producer Saul Zaentz on Thursday filed a $20 million lawsuit against Walt Disney Co. and its Miramax Films unit, accusing them of failing to share profits from his 1996 best picture Oscar winner "The English Patient."
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The U.S. FTC has settled a complaint filed last year against a company accused of illegally selling telephone records.
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Verizon Wireless sued 20 unnamed data brokers for fraudulently obtaining private telephone records belonging to Hewlett-Packard Co. board members and journalists as part of an HP investigation into boardroom leaks
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A Massachusetts businessman accused of bilking the company out of millions of dollars worth of networking gear faces 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. By the Associated Press.
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A group of California cities and counties on Friday filed a class action lawsuit against Microsoft Corp. , saying the world&#39;s largest software maker overcharged them for software.
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Class action suit accuses the software giant of violating state's business code.
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Microsoft will pay as much as $500 million as a part of settlement of the antitrust lawsuit that may be filed by rival software maker Novell, the company said Monday, within an attempt to end its antitrust fight.
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Arguments were heard today in a case whose outcome could require software companies to pay fines for patent-infringing software assembled in other countries.
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By Brice Wallace Deseret Morning News  International Business Machines Corp. on Thursday asked a federal court judge for summary judgment in a lawsuit SCO Group Inc. filed against it.
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Producer Saul Zaentz on  Thursday filed a $20 million lawsuit against Walt Disney Co.  and its Miramax Films unit, accusing them of failing to share  profits from his 1996 best picture Oscar winner "The English  Patient."
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Verizon Wireless  sued 20  unnamed data brokers for fraudulently obtaining private  telephone records belonging to Hewlett-Packard Co.   board members and journalists as part of an HP investigation  into boardroom leaks.
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Novell filed an antitrust lawsuit last week against Microsoft over alleged misdeeds that happened over 10 years ago. Novell said it planned to move forward with the lawsuit when it announced a settlement with Microsoft on other antitrust claims.
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China's largest chip maker is seeking damages in U.S. court from rival Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.Â (TSMC) for alleged breach of contract, widening a legal battle with TSMC that erupted last month.
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TechWeb - Lagos Analysis Corp. is contending in Nigerian court that OLPC's XO laptop violates a patent it says it holds on "multilingual keyboards."
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The studio behind the Lord of the Rings movie trilogy is being sued for $20m (16.2m) by movie and music mogul Saul Zaentz in regard to alleged unpaid royalties.
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Microsoft Corp. on Tuesday announced   20 lawsuits against resellers allegedly engaged in the   distribution of infringing software and software components.