The he said – he said of the JooJoo saga continues

Yes folks it is time for another installment of the tech world’s newest never-ending story in search of increased pageviews. In a move to counter the lawsuit now launched against them Fusion Garage, the company behind the JooJoo (formerly known as the Crunchpad and heralded as the second-coming of the tablet computer web browser), has sent out a response to the allegations brought against it.

Although I wasn’t lucky enough to be included in on the list of bloggers that Fusion Garage figured were big enough to carry their message to the masses the good folks over at Business Insider were so you can either read the original press release over there or you can read our cut and paste version here. Either way you can be sure that this isn’t the end of the story.

FUSION GARAGE RESPONDS TO TECHCRUNCH LAWSUIT AND
DECEMBER 11 BLOG POST BY MICHAEL ARRINGTON
COMPANY STATEMENT
DECEMBER 17, 2009

The lawsuit filed by TechCrunch against Fusion Garage and accompanying December 11, 2009 blog post by Michael Arrington are without merit. We will vigorously defend ourselves against the suit’s claims in court. The December 11 blog post by Arrington makes several hollow allegations including:

Lack of Viable Funding/Our Shareholders/Cash Flow:
Fusion Garage is a properly capitalized start up that has received $3M in funding to date and is preparing to announce a new round within the coming weeks. The Company is a viable concern whose financial status more than enables it to fully develop and bring to market its intellectual property commercialized in the form of joojoo. Fusion Garage has various angel investors that are well-respected business people in the Singapore community. Like many international angel investors, Dr. Bruce Lee is a successful entrepreneur with several profitable ventures. Additionally, Fusion Garage is proud of the other investors on its rosters – many of whom have invested in previous ventures founded by Rathakrishnan. Fusion Garage went out and secured funding – tangible proof of Fusion Garage’s “doer” status relative to the alleged yet intangible claims of investment by TechCrunch. Pre-sales have indeed begun and, with or without them, the Company has sufficient funds to bring the joojoo to market and defend itself against the baseless claims of TechCrunch.

Pegatron IP Ownership:
Another example of Fusion Garage “doer status” in bringing the joojoo to market is the Company’s now defunct relationship with ODM Pegatron. Fusion Garage established this relationship after Arrington’s promises of hardware development support proved to be hollow. Fusion Garage is now working with another top tier ODM to develop a completely new board and mechanical layout that is the basis for the joojoo. To state, as the lawsuit and accompanying blog post do, that Fusion Garage’s joojoo is based on any Pegatron IP is false.

As for the ongoing personal attacks against Rathakrishnan, they do not deserve a point by point response. Arrington’s attacks on Rathakrishnan’s past business activities are unfounded. The points he raises are old news and raise the question of why he would want to do business with Rathakrishnan if his past was so controversial. Dredging up old and nebulous material only reflects his desperation for material.

Fusion Garage is proud to have introduced the joojoo last week and is equally proud of the positive feedback the product received by industry influencers and media. We have received more than 6,000 email inquiries to our website and pre-orders to date have exceeded our expectations. We have no reason to believe that the legal action taken against Fusion Garage will prevent the joojoo from reaching market.
Since our first public statements on the joojoo, we have taken the high road regarding past interactions with Arrington and TechCrunch. We find Arrington’s ongoing attempts to bully public opinion and members of the media to be the sad rants of a person championing a losing cause.

Here are some links to our coverage of the whole mess just in case you need to waste some time and really care about this nonsense in the first place.

CrunchPad Renamed JooJoo, Will Sell For $499 Starting December 11th
Q&A With Fusion Garage CEO Chandra Rathakrishnan On The JooJoo
Fusion Garage Fights Back After Lopsided TechCrunch Story. Renames Device “JooJoo”
Things That Don’t Make Sense About The CrunchPad/ JooJoo Story
TechCrunch Files Lawsuit Against Fusion Garage Intellectual Property Rights