Microsoft asks court to throw out Sendo lawsuit

Microsoft has asked a federal judge in the US to dismiss a lawsuit by British cellphone maker Sendo, saying there was no basis…

Microsoft has asked a federal judge in the US to dismiss a lawsuit by British cellphone maker Sendo, saying there was no basis to Sendo's charges that it stole technical know-how and pushed it to the brink ofbankruptcy.

Software giant Microsoft said in papers filed in the federal court in Texarkana, Texas earlier this week that its one-time partner Sendo had "consistently failed to meet its contractual obligations to design and develop" a now-scrapped multimedia phone by the agreed deadlines.

The papers were filed in a response to a lawsuit filed bySendo in December.

Separately, Microsoft also filed motions to dismiss the lawsuit and change the court venue.

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A Sendo spokesman in London said the company had no immediate comment.

Sendo, which filed suit against Microsoft after the launch of their jointly-developed "Z100" multimedia phone was called off, had charged that the world's largest software maker had not supplied software for the phone in a timely manner.

The small British cellphone maker was Microsoft's key partner in launching a phone based on its Windows computer operating software, but Sendo announced in November it had abandoned Microsoft's software and would instead use software from Finland's Nokia.