Motorola Takes Patent For Disposable Phones
This one is a bit of a surprise. Motorola has apparently agreed to license Hop-On’s patents for disposable mobile phones. Disposable mobile phones were all the rage about two years ago, though most of the companies working on them never got anywhere. They’ve either gone out of business or changed business models entirely. Hop-On is the only one that claims to still be in the business, but there’s been plenty to suggest that company is a complete fraud. They were showing off repackaged Nokia phones as their final product and announcing “deals” with companies after a single (often unpromising) meeting. There was also the issue concerning the little problem where the company hadn’t filed tax returns for years and its CEO was recently arrested for fraud for taking investors’ money and moving it to a shell company he owned. Hop-On had announced they’d be selling phones in 2001… and yet they’re still not for sale. So, it’s a bit odd to hear that Motorola felt the need to license a patent from them.
