RSSLow-cost Laptop effort sued in Nigeria for $20 million
By Tim Conneally | Published January 2, 2008, 12:55 PM
LANCOR (Lagos Analysis Corporation), a Nigerian company headquartered in Massachusetts, has sued One Laptop Per Child for $20 million in damages and an injunction blocking OLPC from distribution in Nigeria.
In August, the company's lawyers publicly accused OLPC of clandestine use of LANCOR product "information," and infringement of intellectual property rights. They claimed Nicholas Negroponte, chairman of OLPC, purchased 2 of LANCOR's keyboards on August 7, 2006, then, weeks later, the company reverse engineered its XO keyboards to be more like the KB-201s Negroponte allegedly purchased.
Although it showed no proof of its assertion, LANCOR demanded $20 million from OLPC.
OLPC's lawyers responded quickly, declining the $20 million ransom and pointing out to the company the ambiguity of the claim. The non-profit asked for clarification as to which aspects of its multilingual keyboard were allegedly in violation.
Rather than communicate with OLPC, LANCOR went directly to the Nigerian courts, filing what is called a Motion on Notice in the federal high court in the Lagos judicial division. This essentially asks for an injunction until a hearing can be established.
However, there was no date for a hearing on the motion when it was filed, and OLPC reportedly has not been served. The case against OLPC was adjourned until January 15.
Co-defendants in the suit, Growing Business Foundation, LeapSoft, and Alteq (Intel's partner in Nigeria) were also cited as infringing on LANCOR's intellectual property, and searched under an Anton Piller order. Such orders grant the plaintiff the right to search the defendants' facilities for evidence related to the case. The former businesses were not found to possess any incriminating evidence, and Alteq was subsequently withdrawn from the suit.
LANCOR's keyboard has 4 shift keys, an additional 14 Latin characters, 13 diacritics ("tonal marks") and 4 currency symbols.
OMG this is just embarassing, it's a shame that the actions of a minority are making mockery of the entire Nigerian culture.
Not all are con artists and desperate criminals but what is beyond me is that the ones doing it are people of moderate to severe mental retardation.
Read up damn you! Do it right or don't bother scamming at all!
If you get the cash give it all to the kids you mother ****ers! Or I'll get my dodgy greek uncle Spiros to scam it back off you!
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|and they say american businesess are 'slap' happy!
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|Where is a "good" uber-hacker when you need one?
It would not be an evil act to place a sizable bounty on LANCOR's entire data infrastructure.
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|ZW,
One of the wittiest comments I've seen on this board,
A real Hoot!!!
Cheers, mate.
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|Please... nobody in Nigeria can invent anything-- one of the reasons foreign products sell so well over there(except for new ways of torturing and scamming that is).
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|This is so lame! Improving the lives of children in Africa is important. This guy could take the time he's wasting on a lawsuit and do something cool and constructive instead... like make a product people are willing to buy... or by providing computer training for people in Nigeria who will need it. Geez! What a loser! I hope he isn't allowed to derail the OLPC project.
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|oh with all the violence and kidnappings going on there they have time for this?
LANCOR you are a disgrace to humanity.
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|"Such orders grant the plaintiff the right to search the defendants' facilities for evidence related to the case."
...and to also search the defendants' facilities for bank account numbers...
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|Are all Nigerian people/companies shady? -_-;
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|yes. thats why we should build a big bloody wall around the country.
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|Apparently the founder of LANCOR couldn't find someone to act as "next of kin" for his deceased multi-millionaire father! Sorry...had to be said with a story like this!
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|dang - you beat me to it. :)
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|"Although it showed no proof of its assertion, LANCOR demanded $20 million from OLPC."
This is about as shallow as you can get...
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|i am betting this will become a trend in the future, leading of course to no business' operating in nigeria. serves them right for being lazy and not going out and getting real jobs like the rest of us.
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|Please, just let the kids have their laptops :)
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|Saw this on another site: "The founder of LANCOR, Ade Oyegbola, was convicted of bank fraud in Boston in 1990 and served a year in prison."
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|true.
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|Typical.
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|My goodness.
The shallowness of some companies is just staggering.
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