British mobile phone developer Sendo Ltd. said it expects hearings to start at the end of January or early February in its lawsuit accusing Microsoft Corp. of using false promises of partnerships to gain access to Sendo"s mobile phone expertise.
The suit was filed in federal court for the Eastern District of Texas, according to Marljke van Hooren, a spokeswoman for Birmingham, U.K.-based Sendo. The U.S. division of Sendo is based in Irving, Texas.
Sendo formed a partnership with Microsoft in October 1999 to help develop e-mail- and Internet-enabled mobile telephone handsets based on the Microsoft operating system code-named Stinger for use by cellular carriers worldwide. That relationship dissolved shortly after Orange SA, a London-based mobile phone operator, introduced in October of this year a mobile phone manufactured by High Tech Computer Co. in Taiwan that"s based on Microsoft"s Smartphone software (see story), instead of Sendo"s Z100 mobile phone.