Phone maker Sendo is still hoping to take Microsoft into a court room, but in the meantime, the surprise news is a Smartphone licensing deal - not with Microsoft, but with Texas Instruments. Is it related to the Microsoft suit?

I think it may be.

Previous debates here have criticised Orange for its role. Sendo seems to be saying that Orange is actually a victim in this case.

Edited by author 07-22-2003 07:54 AM
First mention of Orange as a company getting caught up in this was in the Telegraph a while back - Sendo announced that Orange management was to be called as a witness AGAINST Microsoft in their Texas court battle.

It's surely a little more complex than "innocent"/"guilty"? If I steal Bill Gates' car, and then sell it to Guy - who buys it in good faith - that's one issue. If the true ownership of the car is subsequently drawn to Guy's attention, and he flatly refuses to hand it back to Bill, then that's another, different, issue.

I believe that this kind of thing DOES happen - although not with Bill and Guy - quite frequently. Usually the purchaser of the stolen car is angry at the prospect of having to pay for it AGAIN if they want to keep it... tough, but that's the law. Orange seem to have been offered the "car" at a good price.. and refused to pay. The law on theft is moderately complicated - if I go into a shop and maliciously put new price-labels displaying lower prices on the goods, causing them to sell them at the new lower prices, then EVEN IF I GAIN NO BENEFIT from doing so, it's classed as "theft" - because my action deprived the rightful owner of the control of their property. If Sendo own the design inherent in the SPV, and any income that derives from that design, then a refusal to pay up by Orange WOULD be a kind of theft - even if it was Microsoft that stole the design and sold it on.

Seen as "two issues", maybe it's not so complicated. The granting of the patent to Sendo (UK Patents aren't as easy to get as most countries') makes "ownership" pretty much an open and shut case, surely?

Sendo's change of direction seems "strategic". They're now back on track to make money from Smartphone sales - and not just the ones Orange sell! - PLUS they get income from UK sales by Orange. Sendo were on the verge of going broke not so long back... now they have the prospect of regaining some of their losses (perhaps more than they lost) and developing a new market. It's perhaps worth remembering that "Sendo" belongs to its shareholders... and the bigest shareholder (IIRC) was a Taiwanese manufacturer, of which it's effectively a subsidiary. The manufacturer now gets to make money on each smartphone sold... without the inconveneinece of having to participate in the making it? They make money from both the smartphone AND its Symbian rival. Whichever handset "wins"... they own a stake in it.

I think Microsoft is still Sendo's main target. Interestingly, several observers have said that they think Sendo "lost" its battle with Orange - I don't see this at all.

I think that what we don't know is what's important here! - and what we don't know is this: "Who gave Sendo's designs to Texas Instruments?"

If the IP that Sendo is licensing to TI is, indeed, the patent that is the subject of the Microsoft lawsuit (we can't be certain, can we?) then did Microsoft give the designs to TI? or did HTC get the design from Microsoft, and then commission TI?

If it is Microsoft who gave the design to TI, then the lawsuit will be pretty quick - providing TI comes forth with evidence. If it went via HTC, it could be harder to prove; but again, HTC would really have to offer some kind of explanation of how it got the idea.

Where Sendo would be lost, would be if it turned out that TI built a chip for HTC based on the design that Sendo gave it for the Z100. In that case, Microsoft is in the clear.

There's more at http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t269-s2138028,00.html , but it mostly covers the same ground. One snippet it provided of which I was unaware is that HTC makes O2's XDA too. (I knew they made Ipaq's) HTC aren't exactly famous as handset designers, and handset design is a dark art with few practitioners worldwide. So, who designed the XDA?

If I was being paid big bucks as Sendo's lawyer, I'd quietly tell a gopher to run down to the local Phones4U, and come back with a couple of XDA's - to let the engineering guys run a rheumy eye over. Who knows what they might find... If HTC is the culprit in the Sendo IP affair and not Microsoft, might they not save some cash by re-inventing the wheel as little as possible? If you've got a design that works (and is safely hidden inside the case) why not recycle it?

Given the case of Stacker vs. Microsoft (settled out of court for $120m if I recall correctly) this wouldn't be the first time Redmond has been caught peddling someone else's IP, after the other half of a joint development went sour on the deal. I think the "corporate culture" within MS makes this kind of thing almost inevitable.

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