Re:CrunchPad Federal Lawsuit Filed; Some Additional Thoughts
by liuliu on Friday December 11, 2009 @12:59PM
(#990109)
From what I experienced of ODM in China, I'd guess that Pegatron not only provides the starting point but also do all the designs of the specific motherboard, the plastic outfit, pretty much all the hardware. The guess is reasonable because from what FG claims, they put much resources on the OS development, thus, for a small startup, it is impossible for them to develop the motherboard and the whole industry design (even they have the ability to hand build a prototype).
Few people would start out with a blank slate when most large potential manufacturing partners can offer decent starting points that are well suited for their manufacturing process (using components they have large volume discounts on; designs that fit their tooling perfectly etc.)
But presumably that is only a small part of the IP for the device, and TC are arguing they own the rights to some or all of the remaining IP.