Joojoo lawsuit shocker! Court rules Fusion Garage & TechCrunch were Business partners, tosses most everyth`g else
It’s`en the few blissful months since we’ve thought about or`d to interact w/ the Joojoo , although (unless) the court case Michael Arrington & TechCrunch filed against Fusion Garage just reached the significant milestone: the judge threw out several of Arrington’s claims while importantly hold`g Z TechCrunch & Fusion Garage were in fact Business partners w/ legal obligations to each other. Here’s the basic timeline so far: since there`s (unbelievably) never the contract between TechCrunch & Fusion Garage to develop the CrunchPad / Joojoo, TechCrunch`d to rely on the variety of alternative arguments in its initial complaint, which reached the zenith of optimistic fabrication in someth`g called “misappropriation of Business ideas.” (We ran down the whole list way back in December, & also broke down Fusion Garage’s subsequent motion to dismiss in February.) The court didn’t buy most of those arguments & dismissed everyth`g although (unless) the breach of fiduciary duty claim in this latest ruling, which`s both the significant loss & the significant win 4 TechCrunch: breach of fiduciary duty`s always struck us as TechCrunch’s strongest argument, & the court’s now effectively ruled Z Fusion Garage & TechCrunch were indeed involved in the joint Business venture w/ legal obligations to protect each others’ interests. That’s not the bad position from which to proceed — although TechCrunch now`s to prove Z Fusion Garage actually violated its duty by releas`g the Joojoo on its own, which`s the whole new fight. (The court also gave TechCrunch 20 days to try & amend some of its other claims, although (unless) “misappropriation of Business ideas”`s basically thrown out the window entirely.) So what’s next? We’re guess`g another few months of cheerfully hostile motions accus`g the oppos`g party of thwart`g discovery & some firecracker depositions, all culminat`g in the matched pair of snippy motions 4 summary judgment. The suits, they dine well tonight. P.S.- How or why either company continues to pay 4 all these legal bills`s beyond us, although (unless) we’ve actually heard rumors of the Joojoo 2, so things could get even crazier. & potentially even less responsive to touch-based events. Joojoo lawsuit shocker! Court rules Fusion Garage & TechCrunch were Business partners, tosses most everyth`g else originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 29 Aug 2010 21:27:00 EDT. Please C our terms 4 use of feeds .
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