Sendo, who was one of Microsoft's leading partners in the Windows Powered Smartphone market before dropping the OS in favor of Symbian, has filed suit against Microsoft alleging that Microsoft used secrets passed along during the partnership to help other manufacturers of Windows Powered Smartphone devices.

Sendo's claim is that "Microsoft provided Sendo's proprietary hardware expertise and trade secrets to low-cost original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) who would not otherwise have had the expertise to manufacture handsets that would use (Microsoft software) and used Sendo's carrier-customer relationships to establish its own contractual relationships."

Sendo beleives that some of the features in the Orange SPV are a result of the proprietary information that was passed along by Microsoft. Microsoft executives in Europe have maintained that the allegations by Sendo are without merit. Sendo's decision to scrap their Z100 smartphone, and their dealings with Microsoft came just weeks after Orange launched the SPV.

Of interesting note is the fact that Microsoft is a minority shareholder in Sendo. It will be interesting to see how this plays out in the courts.