TechCrunch Denied Injunction over Joojoo Tablet

By Geoff Duncan August 30, 2010

Image used with permission by copyright holder

A judge has denied TechCrunch a preliminary injunction on the production and sale of the Joojoo Tablet. However, while throwing out the majority of TechCrunch’s claims, the judge has also ruled TechCrunch and the Singapore-based Fusion Garage, despite an appalling lack of contracts, likely fall under the legal definition of business partners, with an obligation to look out for each other’s interests. The ruling means that TechCrunch won’t be able to shut down sales of the Joojoo or immediately recoup any revenue from sales of the device, but may open the door to TechCrunch pursuing a claim that Fusion Garage breached fiduciary responsibility in their partnership.

TechCrunch sued Fusion Garage over the Joojoo in late 2009, just as the Joojoo tablet went on sale. The lawsuit materials revealed that only 90 tablets had been ordered before the Joojoo began shipping.

The Joojoo tablet has quickly faded into the background of the current tablet computer market, with the Apple iPad currently dominating the market, with a torrent of Android-based competitors due to go on sale in time for the end-of-year holiday buying season. However, the once-touted Joojoo once garnered significant online attention for repeated boastful pre-production claims of its capabilities and pricetag. TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington floated the idea in mid-2008, although Fusion Garage claims to have been working on their hardware longer than that.

The Joojoo features a 12.1-inch 1,366 by 768-pixel touch screen display and runs Linux; it features 4 GB of storage, 1 GB of RAM, a 1.6 GHz Intel Atom processor, and claims to be able to go from a cold start to a Web browser in just 9 seconds.

Arrington originally touted the tablet as getting to market with a $200 price tag, although the estimated price tag crept up as the product got closer to shipping. The Joojoo eventually went on sale for $499.

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Emerging Tech

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Geoff Duncan writes, programs, edits, plays music, and delights in making software misbehave. He's probably the only member…

Emerging Tech

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Emerging Tech

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This content was produced in partnership with HD Hyundai.
Autonomous vehicle navigation technology is certainly nothing new and has been in the works for the better part of a decade at this point. But one of the most common forms we see and hear about is the type used to control steering in road-based vehicles. That's not the only place where technology can make a huge difference. Autonomous driving systems can offer incredible benefits to boats and marine vehicles, too, which is precisely why HD Hyundai has unveiled its Avikus AI technology -- for marine and watercraft vehicles.

More recently, HD Hyundai participated in the Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show, to demo its NeuBoat level 2 autonomous navigation system for recreational boats. The name mashes together the words "neuron" and "boat" and is quite fitting since the Avikus' A.I. navigation tech is a core component of the solution, it will handle self-recognition, real-time decisions, and controls when on the water. Of course, there are a lot of things happening behind the scenes with HD Hyundai's autonomous navigation solution, which we'll dive into below -- HD Hyundai will also be introducing more about the tech at CES 2023.