Stop the keyboard madness!
"[Ade's friend] said, 'Wow, I saw your keyboard on OLPC,' " said Oyegbola, who then visited the foundation's website. There he saw a document describing a keyboard layout that seemed nearly identical to his own. "They didn't try to hide anything," Oyegbola said. "They just copied everything verbatim."Well look what Santa sent me early-like: copies of the Nigerian patent documentation on LANCOR's Registered Industrial Design of the KONYIN Multilingual Keyboard.
Page 1 - Page 2 - Page 3 - Page 4 - Page 5 - Page 6 - Page 7Now we can see everything verbatim ourselves, and it's an interesting read. From the looks of it, Adé G. Oyegbola's suit should be frivolous after all. I say the registration expired a year ago and Oyegbola should cease and desist asap before he embarrasses himself more.
The Boston Globe is already digging up his past, and it ain't pretty:
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.Good luck Ade, you're gonna need it. I expect your systems are going get hacked by mad geeks. Right. About. Now.
What a flippin joke! Did I read 'Scientists and Inventors'? Utter chaos in Ade's brain. I suggest he and his crony try to scam OPEC. More money there definitely...
Well it could be extended form ten more years so it may be valid until 2016.
Seeing in detail then yes the patent itself is simply a keyboard layout. I don't know how much we can patent on that without falling on the obviouness scale.
Compare page 5 with this
http://wiki.laptop.org/go/OLPC_Nigeria_Keyboard
Of course it's not identical, his patent has the usaul windows key, caps lock, print screen and f1 to f12, while the xo laptop has a view source key, keys for zoom levels, camera, microphone and volume. Both of them use a basic qwerty position for letter layouts.
Finally we can only judge on the position of the special Nigerian characters. The N with hook, E with dot and b with tail are in the same position, but the inverted E, the dollar sign and the O with dot are not. And finally maybe this guy owns the FN key.
I do not doubt that the OLPC folks copied the layout from an existing nigerian keyboard. AFAIK in most countries localized keyboard layouts are a open standard not someone's private properties, and I don't expect MIT geeks to be educated in the specifics of Nigerian law. Maybe they even actually copied this konin keyboard as a basis, but changed it.
I don't think this KONIN is right but maybe he has some fuels to give OLPC an unnecessary and costly lawsuit in a country they don't even operate.
How could this patent hold ground for a law-suit?
OLPC did not necessarily copy the Konin keyboard. All you need to do to get the same added keys is to ask language professionals (translators, localisation people) which special keys are required in the country (Nigeria in this case).
In most if not all cases the same result should be generated, as the base language assumptions are the same.
Then all you need to decide is where you will put the extra functions on the key-board.
Anyway, most patents in computer science are just regressions.
Sounds like a Nigerian touch (keyboard).
"""I expect your systems are going get hacked by mad geeks"""
I doubt there's many 1337 h4x0rs or russian botnet controllers up in arms about this.
Joking aside, Groklaw has a pretty thorough deconstruction of the legal case:
http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20071201221628452
Some background about the OLPC and Konyin is in the OLPC Wiki; apparently, the Konyin keyboard layout was considered but people decided against it. Generally, the goal seems to be not to reinvent the wheel and go with what Freedesktop is using.
It looks like he should have a case but what about him blocking the rights of children to learn and prosper is that a case too??
LSPDR also says, it was open source and did he have knowledge of the program in effect?
When did he first find out about it?
Why then did he not publicly on the open for all wiki state his case?
Could some one else come up with the same Ideas?
Is your document a fraud?Based on your nations noted history.
Will the Nigerian police follow up? How much will that cost to get done/
Do you have enough to pay I heard you had a fall.
He has a right to a case but to catch up to your first world Hands on new cars and cell phones you cannot block the product maybe some one should block your ability to buy and sell new cars in Nigeria based on your lack of proper road services or some other rule saying it will not be good for the cars computer systems. This could be your tomorrow Whose Grafting now in SA?
No rules can be good rules
I too have given in stuff that is hidden on peoples computers that I did not have too. Not the stuff I am claiming some company hacked in to steal in 8-06 but other stuff.
So now I am going to take it away form this guy and his judge in Nigeria and any one who blocks the use and sharing of OLPC Laptop based on the Rights of the Children. Take it away --> ..
\See my patent in XP programing is in the programs usage and my command even in the here after its some Ancient Egyptian stuff that's not yet regulated that helps me do it.
Don't believe me Good don't Don't use it any more. Soccer any one. Cherrio!