Two years of litigation drew to a close last week as the in-house legal team at Birmingham-based mobile phone manufacturer Sendo secured a settlement in its intellectual property dispute with software giant Microsoft.

Pocknell: protecting rights

Sendo’s group general counsel Robert Pocknell told the Gazette he was extremely pleased with the settlement terms - which remain for the most part confidential - resolving a dispute that had demanded full-time attention from the in-house team since December 2002. Microsoft has agreed to surrender its 4% holding in Sendo.

Sendo sued Microsoft in a Texas court in 2002 alleging fraud, misappropriation of trade secrets and breach of contract after a deal to develop a ‘smartphone’ running Microsoft software fell apart. Sendo claimed Microsoft had used its intellectual property to launch a smart phone with another manufacturer.


Microsoft then counter-sued Sendo, claimed that it had failed to meet contractual obligations for designing and developing the phone.


Mr Pocknell said: ‘Microsoft is a powerful multinational company with a lot of litigation experience, so we thought very carefully before taking any action against it. However, we believed we had a strong case and that we had been wronged. We are committed to protecting our intellectual property rights whatever the size of the company and we are extremely pleased with the terms of the settlement.’


The Sendo in-house team working full-time on the dispute comprised Mr Pocknell, solicitor Mark Tomlinson, trainee solicitor Sandip Sohal and patent engineer Matt Westcott. Sendo instructed Texas law firm Jackson Walker to represent it in the litigation, with further advice from DLA and Eversheds in Birmingham and Olswang and Clifford Chance in London. Microsoft instructed US law firm Winston & Strawn.