Sendo vs. Microsoft: The Truth Comes Out

igotmybfg writes "The Register has a story which includes many details about the phone maker's Texas suit against the software giant. It seems that Microsoft had much more to gain from letting its partner fail than helping it to succeed: in the event of a bankruptcy, Microsoft acquired all of Sendo's intellectual property related to the z100 Stinger SmartPhone, and was then free to do whatever it wanted, which in this case turned out to be going behind Sendo's back and making a deal with Orange SPA." Read our original article about this to get more background information.

Sendo needs better lawyers...

[HiyaPower]

When you walk into the lion's den, you need more than a g-string on. To have put themselves in a position where M$ could grab Sendo's intellectual property by not giving them anything is stupid.

That said, dealing in bad faith is something that is tortous. I hope Sendo recovers the stars the moon and the sky from these bastards.

And another thing..

[Amoeba]

Okay, I joked about this in another post but does anyone else find it irresponsible that the StingerOS is called StinkerOS not once but twice in the article?

This isn't bad editing, it's on purpose and only undermines the impact of the story by showing where the Register's bias is. Bad freakin' journalism. Then again, it cemented the chance this would show up on ./

uh.. not that the editors ever read the stories of course.. :)

Amoeba

Contract is law

[Anonymous Coward]

In the Anglo Saxon legal system, a contract has equal status as the law and the contract terms are used by a judge to determine the outcome of any dispute.
However in germanic and roman law (Rest of Europe and large chunk of the world), the contract is the law, but is tempered by other laws that define that some clauses are innaceptable (an example would be the prohibition of contracts based on human organ trade).
If these 2 systems attain the same result most of the time, the germano-roman type of law gives some sort of implied guarantee to any type of contract.
One of these guarantees states that both parties in a contract should enter the agreement in good faith or else the contract is void.
The point of this diatribe is to state that when you see a bargain on a item because of an error or mischief, and you profit from it, your sales contract can be rendered void afterwards in Europe, but it can only be rendered void in the US and the UK if there is a cllause that covers that point in the contract.
So following this path of thought, if Microsoft is profiting from Sendo's poor management, they still would have had to prove that their tactics were not intended to harm their partner. That is if the trial was not in Texas!!!
My "European" 2 cents

Re:They're suing *who* again?

[Planesdragon]

I'm under no imaginable obligation to contact the seller and let him know he's an idiot.

No legal obligation, but there are plently of moral and ethical ones. In a like vein, if you were to contact the seller and your appraisal was accurate, he'd be under the same kind of non-legal obligation to give you first crack at the antique--or just a "finder's fee."

As someone else pointed out, there are laws against getting into extremely one-sided deals--Usury, bad faith, court policy, etc. No law against making a bad deal, but there are laws against one-sided "mafia" deals.

Re:And another thing..

[jez_f]

you read theregister regularly you will find that they always do this sort of thing. After freeserve was bought by the French government they were always calling it 'le freeserve'. There are loads of other examples but none that come to mind right now.

Re:And another thing..

[madprof]

They insult everyone, to try and be fair.
Hence Intel is ChipZilla and AMD is ChimpZilla.
The only exception to this really is when it comes to figures in the Linux world.

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[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Nokia

[CaptainZapp]

This shows pretty nicely why Nokia was right [theregister.co.uk] to avoid the boys from Redmond like a mixture between syphillis and herpes.

Seemed to be a smart choice after all..

Re:And another thing..

[DanMilburn]

Well, no. Why is it irresponsible?

The Register are biased against Microsoft, and have good reason to be. Would you prefer that they don't reveal that bias?

Really, this is just what they do. Their tagline is 'Biting the hand that feeds IT', and they tend to take the piss out of anyone they feel like. It's one of the reasons I like them so much. :)

UK Sunday Press

[Martin S.]

Over the Week-end this was plastered all over the UK's Broadsheets (quality) news papers in the last few day; and not technology sections but in the Business. The damage to Microsoft's reputation for bad-faith with the 'Captains of Industry' from this episode will be profound.

There is also refuge for Sendo in UK bankruptcy laws, where Creditors have an incredible amount of power in the say of the winding up of a company. There are two forms, Administration, a private sector accountant is appointed to take over running of the business. He has absolute authority in to persue the Creditors best interests, even if the only real assets are IP, bad debts and damages. In this fails the next step is Insolvency, Government investigators from the DTI investigate why the business failed, have criminal investigative powers and can sequestrate assets of bad debtors, and prosecute offenders. If Sendo do go bust that is only the start of Microsoft problems.

Patient, like Sauron

[ackthpt]

It seems that Microsoft had much more to gain from letting its partner fail than helping it to succeed: in the event of a bankruptcy, Microsoft acquired all of Sendo's intellectual property related to the z100 Stinger SmartPhone

IIRC Microsoft has a stake in General Magic, which developed video software for handheld devices. It was of note, a few years ago, because General Magic was down to $1 a share when Microsoft took interest. Last I looked General Magic closed September or early October and was winding down completely about December. Guess who will get their IP, as a significant debtor

Re:Standards

[CaptainZapp]

I would say we're lucky this technology wasn't determined by American companies (and I basically don't care if they are European or Asean), or else we'd pay double for our phones, just for the patents to use the proprietary communication format.

To the best of my knowledge, you pretty much describe Qualcomms business model.

From what I know they are liked in the industry about as much as Rambus.

Re:duh

[Anonymous Coward]

LOL. Bourgeois logic is always good for a laugh.

"Microsoft is anti-capitalist". hehehehhe.

Sorry what you describe is perfect competition, which is only one of several ways the market can operate under capitalism. Perfect competition requires a delicate balance and is easily destroyed.

I think you are the one with an odd concept of capitalism. Monopolies are a part of capitalism just as much as perfect competition is.

Oh ya there are no rules in capitalism. Governments may or may not impose various rules on the market but these are not a part of capitalism. So really by complaining about microsoft you are being anti-capitalist.

heheheheh.

I guess they don't require any economics classes to get a computer science degree.

I mean do you even listen to what you say?

"Kill all contenders isn't capitalism"

So if your business is putting the competition out of business you should suddenly back off and let them take some of your marketshare or something? That's completely laughable. In fact the shareholders could sue you for doing something like that.

"Evolution selects the best"

This contradicts what you just said. In order for your earlier statement to make sense evolution would have to select a bunch of less than best. Otherwise all the contenders become extinct.

Bah, why do i even bother...

ms man on sendo board

[geoff lane]

remember, MS had a man on the Sendo board. MS cannot now claim to not know the situation Sendo was in. If Sendo can show that the MS man acted against the interests of Sendo he's wide open to be sued by the shareholders. If Sendo can show that the MS man acted in bad faith on behalf of MS then MS is in deep s.h.i.t.

Read the article? How novel!

[AndyMouse GoHard]

Erm... which part of "Sendo didn't go bankrupt" don't you understand? Otis, if that's your real name, do try to read the article. Microsoft was not free to do whatever they wanted because the necessary precondition to that was not met.

Bill

It's quite simple really.

[Lethyos]

Do not partner with Microsoft. Do not become inolved with a company that has a long, pathetic history of screwing-over anyone and everyone they even remotely deal with.

Learn, people! If you play with fire, you'll get burned! Instead, choose to deal with organizations that are friendly because they understand the concept of doing good work to stay in business (open source vendors for example).

Re:Contract is law

[Zontar The Mindless]

> In the Anglo Saxon legal system, a contract has equal status as the law...

Not quite. Clauses that require breaking the law are themselves illegal and can't be enforced.

Lion's share...

[lynx_user_abroad]

Borrowed from Dr. Larry Fogelberg [nada.kth.se] but originally from Aesop:

The lion approached the wolf and the fox, and suggested that they form a partnership for the purpose of hunting game. The lion explained that each had particular talents that would lend themselves to such a partnership. The fox was wily and could trick the quarry into the open; and the wolf was swift of foot, so that he could direct the quarry to where the lion lay in wait to complete the kill. After some discussion, the wolf and the fox agreed to enter into a partnership with the lion. All went as planned and a deer was killed, but when the wolf and the fox tried to share in the kill, the lion challenged them. They stood by, helplessly, and watched the lion devour the entire carcass. Afterward, they asked the lion why he had only left them a few scraps. The lion replied, "All I took was the lion's share."

Re:How brazen can Microsoft's executives be?

[haggar]

I agree with your points. But I must add, the DOJ had all the right evidence, and yet, it failed.
I am not going to analize why, that would really take us quite far, but I can't help thinking that 40 billion in cash gets you a long way.

Re:This story is about the future.... 5/1/2003???

[Platinum Dragon]

Just a typo, but looks like there's a dyslexic editor on the Register's website. 5/1/2003 appears to be a bit too far into the future.

Only if you're in North America. In Europe and much of the world, dates are written day/month/year, instead of month/day/year.

Incidentally, it was a date-style conflict that convinced many people the anthrax letters from late 2001 were written by an American.

I wonder....

[SerpentMage]

Here is why I wonder. The software industry and the telco industry are TWO separate things. Even now with MS going with T-Online has Orange concerned. Orange networks had a MS device, but now is one of many providers of that "same" MS device.

Basically MS is giving punches before they are even established in the market. I am tempted to believe that they will not make it.

Here is why. My wife just got a new phone. It was an Ericsson T68. REAL sweet. Small, has colour and many other neat features. MS competitors are huge devices with little battery power. And having talked to my MS friend in the US he tells me only MS employees are the ones using these types of devices. BTW this includes the Palm devices as well. It seems that people want small devices....

What does this have to do with Sendo? I think that MS seriously has the lower hand and will loose this battle. And the reason is because they cannot get traction like they could in other markets.

Re:oh please!

[Lochin Rabbar]

They were proven guilty of using their monopoly illegally, not of violating Sendo's intellectual property. Until they are, they are innocent. No, until proven found in a court one is innocent in the eyes of the law. Actual guilt or innocence is a matter of fact and entirely independent of a courts findings. Any individual, not involved in the legal process, is entitled to their opinions on the matter of actual guilt or innocence. A finding of not guilty in the court does not prevent an individual from expressing an opinion that a person was actually guilty. Think of the OJ trial and the subsequent civil trial.