Lancor or Lagos Analysis Corporation, a United States-based Nigerian-owned company has filled a lawsuit for patent infringement against One Laptop Project Child Foundation in Nigeria, where the company owns a patent for a four region-specific keyboards called Konyin Multilingual Keyboards, developed by Lancor’s Shift2 technology.
A Massachusetts company, Natick-based Lancor charged the non-profit organization with stealing its design for a multilingual keyboard. Adé Oyegbola, Lancor’s CEO, stated, “OLPC illegally reverse-engineered the company’s patented keyboard, which, with its four-shift keys, allows computers to better handle multiple languages. The company is further looking for the Nigerian court to award “substantial” damages and issue a permanent injunction to prevent OLPC from manufacturing and selling its XO laptop.
However, Lancor is also open to settle down the issue before the court issues an injunction. CEO said, “OLPC could have ‘sought a license and gotten it for a minimal fee’. We’re hoping … they can come to their senses, and we sit down and come to a reasonable settlement.”
On the other hand, OLPC director of finance and operation, Robert Fadel maintained “OLPC has the utmost respect for the rights of intellectual property owners. To OLPC’s knowledge, all of the intellectual property used in the XO Laptop is either owned by OLPC or properly licensed. Until we have a copy of the claim and have had time to review it, we will not be commenting further on the matter.”
In addition to the Nigerian lawsuit, Lancor is looking at filing a patent lawsuit in the U.S. court within three weeks, if the case is not settled by then.
