Matter is satisfactorily settled, ceo says
Sendo’s ceo Hugh Brogan has said he was “extremely pleased” at the undisclosed financial settlement between his company and Microsoft over disputed inellectual property rights.
Brogan spoke after the cessation of hostilities in a dispute that has rumbled on for nearly two years after Sendo accused Microsoft of misappropriating smartphone IPRs intended for use in a jointly developed phone, the Sendo Z100.
Sendo alleged that its intellectual property ended up instead in HTC’s MS-based smaprtphone for Orange, the SPV. Microsoft has always publicly disputed the allegation.
Now the companies have settled in a deal that has seen Microsoft hand back its 4% share in Sendo, an investment that originally cost it around $12million. Whether there is any other financial compensation in the package has not been publicised.
But Brogan was putting a brave face on in public, saying that he was “extremely happy” with the settlement.
“We are extremely pleased. We set out to defend our intellectual property and right the wrongs and are very pleased at the outcome,” Brogan said. “We’ve got a settlement we are happy with and Microsoft no longer has any shares in, or involvment with, Sendo. We can put this behind us knowing we have a satisfactory outcome,” he added.
Brogan said it was impossible to tell what the dispute had cost Sendo in terms of lost potential revenue. But he said the company had moved on, moving instead to the Symbian OS and Nokia Series 60 platform.
Microsoft was less forthcoming on how happy it was with the settlement. Mobile Europe received the following statement defending its treatment of its partners’ intellectual property.
“As an intellectual property company, we invest considerable time and resources in research and development, and we respect the intellectual property rights of others. Working closely with hardware manufacturers and network operators has been the basis of our success in this business and we are proud of our strong relationships in the mobile phone business. We look forward to continuing to bring innovative products to customers.”