Whuh oh. There’s something called the Konyin keyboard that basically has a second shift key function which allows its typist to use the different letters and symbols of Latin-based alphabets from around the world.
The company that developed the Konyin keyboard, Lagos Analysis of Nigeria, is now claiming that Nicholas Negroponte and the OLPC project bought a pair of the keyboards "with the express purpose of illegally reverse engineering the source codes" in order to develop a similar keyboard for the OLPC XO laptops.
That’s a pretty bold claim and, if true, could spell even more trouble for the project.
Natick-Nigerian firm sues Cambridge-based One Laptop Per Child [Cambridge Chronicle]
The same company also has funds from a rich estate, that if you provide them with your bank account number they will deposit the 3.2 million in US dollars and only request 25% for their findings.
No programer needs to reverse engineer a keyboard – its too simple – to just look at the layout is enough. Now can a layout be patented ? It would be great I just file a patent on the US-keyboard and sue anyone using it. Or wait why don’t I file all layouts.