[Arm-netbook] [status] qimod ltd

[Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton]

i thought i'd give people a summary of the situation so far.

1) i looked up the advice on trademark invalidation: it says that you
have to make the attempt (continously) to enter into negotiations.
2) the directors of qimod ltd are making absolutely no effort
*whatsoever* to my efforts at negotiation.
3) the reason why not seem to be one of revenge, pure and simple.
4) due to the revenge-seeking the settlement offers received have
matched the director's desires to marginalise (effectively terminate)
the goals of this project.
5) the reasons for the revenge-seeking are down, sadly, to
miscommunications.  this is partly a knock-on effect of my working
sustained and continuous 14 hour days for months at a time: pure
exhaustion meant that i had to take a break.  this was when the
mis-communications accumulated.
6) one of the miscommunications is in the handling of the kde project.
7) the directors (myself included) made a joint - as it turned out
risky - decision to let aaron handle the first critical product
release, instead of going with a MEBv2.
8) as the delays turned to months, resulting in embarrassment for
qimod with its suppliers, the directors made a joint decision to
cancel the supply of product to makeplaylive.com and ordered them to
remove all mention of qimod and eoma68 from all web sites.
9) aaron claims never to have received that message.
10) the key director (majority shareholder) of qimod FORGOT that he
had ever sent that message!
11) aaron and the majority shareholder then had a conversation in
which they decided that i was the sole exclusive source of all
problems.
12) the directors of qimod then met and these mis-apprehensions were
used as the basis of a decision to no longer trust me.

so it is a rather unfortunate story involving, pure and simple,
mis-communication.  i am taking a multi-pronged approach to deal with
this:

1) as the copyright holder of something like 95% of the material
involved, including the entire text of the EOMA68 standard (with a few
minor contributors), and pretty much all of the PCB designs, i am in a
strong position to be able to continue the project

2) as the copyright holder of the EOMA68 standard's text, and as the
only person who has been promoting the EOMA standards publicly, and
*especially* as there has quite literally been no effort on the part
of the qimod directors to engage in negotiations, i am in a strong
position to have the qimod registered trademark invalidated.
trademark tribunals take a very dim view of parties that do not engage
in negotiations.

3) i am continuing to attempt to communicate with the directors of
qimod, to get to the bottom of the mis-communications, and to enter
into reasonable and rational negotiations as best i can.  one of the
(minor) directors is a lawyer who specialises in settlements: he has
actually *already* given up hope as he is overwhelmed by the vehemence
and venom behind the majority shareholder's words - especially i think
he cannot quite believe that a friend of such long-standing should
seek revenge in such a way.

4) i am also seeking advice on how a more "powerful" individual may
overwhelm someone by not *explicitly* seeking their consent to become
a Director of a Ltd Company... and then, based on *verbal assumption*,
sign that individual up for the legally-binding responsibility as a
Director of a Limited Company.... using *online web sites only*.

in the background of all of this i am continuing to talk to SoC
companies, develop future PCBs, find suppliers to make prototypes and
talk with a reputable crowd-funding company to get the first CPU Card
and first base-board out the door.  the EOMA68-A20 CPU Card is
paid-for and on its way (don't ask me to give timescales! :) and the
other PCBs (micro-desktop, EOMA68-A33, EOMA68-jz4775) i am seeking
companies to get them made.  i am expecting to hear from a company on
monday about the IC1t CPU Card and the micro-desktop PCB samples.

so, lots going on.

l.