In an ironic twist of events, OLPC’s Nicholas Negroponte has received a letter from Lagos Analysis Corporation (LANCOR), a U.S.-based Nigerian-owned company that claims the XO laptop infringed on its multilingual keyboard technology.

Excerpt from Marketwire:

LANCOR’s lawsuit alleges that OLPC purchased two KONYIN Multilingual Keyboard models (KONYIN Nigeria Multilingual Keyboard and KONYIN United States Multilingual Keyboard) with the express purpose of illegally reverse engineering the source codes for use in OLPC’s XO Laptops.

Also:

LANCOR is seeking substantial damages as well as a permanent injunction to prevent OLPC from continuing to unlawfully manufacture, sell, distribute or offer for sale the XO Laptop, and any other products infringing on the RD8489 and using the illegally acquired keyboard driver source codes.

According to Solicitor Ade Adedeji,”The willful infringement of our client’s intellectual property is so blatant and self-evident in the OLPC’s XO Laptops, we will have no problem establishing the facts of our client’s case against OLPC in any court of law.”

I don’t suppose Nicholas Negroponte expected this. At this moment, I honestly don’t know what to make of it myself.

What is your opinion of this alleged patent infringement by the OLPC?