CrunchPad Litigation Imminent
techcrunch.com
techcrunch.com
Is the crunchpad dead?
Partner / Supplier diligence is just as important as a good idea. Techcrunch is hurting their ability to find future partners in the way they are handling this, regardless of who is at fault.
The trademark for "CrunchPad" was filed on November 17, 2009. It's registered under Interserve, Inc. doing business as TechCrunch (apologies if the link goes dead - sometimes they use weird sessions on USPTO.gov):
Anybody have any idea about pricepoints...
a) Cost of a prototype... it depends. :-) Your hypothetical is badly underspecified.
In the boat owner world, we use a unit known as a Boat Unit of Cost (BUC) which is typically defined as $1000 ($100 if you are cheap like me, $1,000,000 if you are Larry Ellison http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larry_Ellison#Sailing http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rising_Sun_%28yacht%29).
Lets define a "Prototype Unit of Cost" (PUC) to be $100,000.
Designing the hardware (schematic, mechanical) if you don't do it yourself.
1.0 PUC for a starting point for design to schematic capture.
0.5 PUC for a simple layout.
0.5 PUC for mechanical design.
1.0 PUC (linux boots and runs well)
0.1 PUC
1.0 PUC. Maybe less, likely more.
0.1 - 1.0 PUC
1.0 PUC assuming passing the first time (perhaps with some minor mods).
* Hobbyist device... $1,000..$10,000
* "Collection of already certified modules" simple commercial device, mostly self-designed... $100,000..$500,000.
* Outsourced design, software, with a more integrated design (less buying of pre-certified modules)... $500,000..$5,000,000
b) You own all the IP that you paid to have developed. The legal doctrine that covers this is "work for hire." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Work_for_hire (Disclaimer: IANAL, you always want your lawyer to CYA for you on this!)
I just don't see how you could possibly spin that. It's clearly out of the blue & they're clearly trying to push TechCrunch out.
does anyone know if there's precedent showing how a court would react to the publication of letters and emails concerning a legal rift and running up to proceedings - will courts look favourably on that at all?
Maybe not for FG, but I think we can comfortably characterize TC as being amateur in the hardware arena. Has Arrington ever run a business whose product end users paid for?
Still, Fusion Garage has a lot of explaining to do.
But suing someone in another country seems like an impossible proposition. It's one of the inherent risks of offshoring, if the other person screws you over, you really don't have any real recourse.