The only information that is available is that Microsoft will surrender its four per cent shareholding in the privately held, Birmingham, UK-based Sendo. After the announcement, Hugh Brogan, CEO of Sendo commented: "We entered this action to defend our intellectual property. We got the outcome we were looking for and are very pleased with it".

The dispute goes back to 2002 when Sendo, Microsoft's original smart phone partner, accused the software giant of passing on its intellectual property to third party original design manufacturers (ODMs). The first victim of the falling out was Sendo's Z100 smartphone which was based on the Microsoft Windows for Smartphones 2002 operating system (OS). The Z100 was dumped by Sendo just weeks before it was due to come to the market. At the time, Sendo said it had dropped Microsoft after carrying out a review of its smart phone strategy but tellingly, the company started legal proceedings shortly thereafter.

In its submission to the US courts, Sendo accused Microsoft of having "a secret plan….to plunder the small company of its proprietary information, technical expertise, market knowledge, customers and prospective customers". The filing went on to say that Microsoft gained Sendo's trust and confidence through false promises that Sendo would be its go to market partner". Later Sendo started legal proceedings against Orange, claiming that the mobile operator's SPV handsets violated its intellectual property. This further dispute was quickly settled out of court. Sendo subsequently embraced the Symbian operating system and the X Series 60 handset began shipping earlier this year.

The settlement resolves all claims in this litigation, both in the USA and in the United Kingdom.
Ian Channing