OLPC Lawsuit-Bringer Has Past Fraud Conviction

d0ida writes "The Boston Globe has up an article about LANCOR's lawsuit over the design of the OLPC's keyboard. 'Negroponte said the lawsuit is without merit, because OLPC uses a keyboard programming technique developed in 1996, long before the Nigerian patent was filed. The founder of Lagos Analysis Corp., Ade Oyegbola, was convicted of bank fraud in Boston in 1990 and served a year in prison. Oyegbola insists his Nigerian patent is legitimate and said he plans to file a copyright-infringement lawsuit against OLPC in an American court.'"

Need to watch those logical fallacies, folks

[lunchlady55]

"The Boston Globe has up an article about LANCOR's lawsuit over the design of the OLPC's keyboard. 'Negroponte said the lawsuit is without merit, because OLPC uses a keyboard programming technique developed in 1996, long before the Nigerian patent was filed. The founder of Lagos Analysis Corp., Ade Oyegbola, was convicted of bank fraud in Boston in 1990 and served a year in prison. Oyegbola insists his Nigerian patent is legitimate and said he plans to file a copyright-infringement lawsuit against OLPC in an American court.'" From wikipedia on argumentum ad hominem: "...consists of replying to an argument or factual claim by attacking or appealing to a characteristic or belief of the person making the argument or claim, rather than by addressing the substance of the argument or producing evidence against the claim. The process of proving or disproving the claim is thereby subverted, and the argumentum ad hominem works to change the subject." o wait, this is t3h int3rtub35 wh4t wuz i thinkin.... logic is t3h 5ux0r5.

Re:Of course!

[jrumney]

There are circumstances where a design which may qualify for patent protection in another country qualifies only for copyright protection in the US. See Wikipedia:Industrial design rights [wikipedia.org].

Re:It was a DESIGN patent!

[Rick17JJ]

A Groklaw article also says that it is just a design patent, which registers how it looks, not how it works. She says that "it turns out it's not a patent in the usual sense. It's a design registration." Her article, also says that the copyright on the design appears to have expired. Here is the link:

The Nigerian OLPC Dispute - How Does It Look [groklaw.net]

Re:Need to watch those logical fallacies, folks

[FroBugg]

This is more than an ad hominem attack. If the news story had uncovered that he was a sex offender or had been convicted for stealing a car, that would be a pure personal attack. This is proof that the individual has conducted fraud in the past, and the article also presents evidence by the OLPC people that this may be another case of fraud.

Globe Article

[earlymon]

Maybe it's just me, but it seems like the parent didn't have this link. It seems to clarify Oyegbola's position, which are not those I'd have believed from reading previous comments alone. (Hey - it was such a bad day, I tried to RTFM, couldn't, and tracked it down. So, I'm not ragging on anyone for their comments, I'm just saying about how I things came across, today.)

http://www.boston.com/business/globe/articles/2007/11/28/laptops_for_kids_group_sued_over_keyboard_design/ [boston.com]

Anyway, it's an interesting article. I'd be curious about how much of it is actually true, but it is interesting.