ArchosFans.com

Archos has released an official response to which it calls unfounded and slanderous allegations by (in my opinion) long-time forum troll “alsutton” (constant Archos basher in the forums since September), who on the forum alleged that Archos had redistributed Funky Android’s confidential informations regarding the workings of the Applications Library application AppsLib.com versus the andappstore.com.

Information about Appslib
ARCHOS is a French corporation founded in 1988. Since then, ARCHOS has constantly been on the
cutting edge of technology, introducing this year ARCHOS’ new Internet Tablet. The ARCHOS 5
Internet Tablet is based on the Android platform and is helping the Android developer community to
create improved applications by exploiting the features found only in the ARCHOS device.
ARCHOS is a fairly small company considering the competition, but it has managed to compete and
play an important role in its sector by securing and working with a large network of partners around the
globe and maintaining high quality relationships with each of them.
During the conception and pre-production phases of the ARCHOS 5 Internet Tablet, various groups
within ARCHOS contacted several potential partners for various projects. One project was the creation
of ARCHOS’ own application store, called Appslib. Funky Android was contacted as one of the
potential non-exclusive partners on this project.
ARCHOS and Funky Android signed a Non-Disclosure-Agreement (NDA), thus enabling both parties
to safely exchange documentations. Discussions started in June 2009. Funky Android and ARCHOS
at that point engaged in discussions to come up with an Android application based on the ARCHOS
back-end database structure. Despite ARCHOS’ best efforts, discussions stalled in August 2009 at
which point Archos and Funky Android had not come to an agreement. Discussions were formally
stopped on September 2, 2009. In the meantime, negotiations were initiated with an extremely
adaptable and productive company that started to work on ARCHOS’ request for proposal based on
the ARCHOS database model. A contract was ultimately signed with this company.

On September 15, ARCHOS publicly released its Appslib application. Since this time, ARCHOS has
been the target of false allegations by Funky Android claiming NDA breach and Intellectual Property
“theft” of an architectural model. ARCHOS created the conceptual design of both the client and the
database. The AppsLib is an extremely market-standard way of presenting applications and parsing a
database. Such a model is widely used in the industry.

Funky Android claims that such a structure is covered by their intellectual property rights, while failing
to prove such a claim. Indeed, the Appslib architecture is using public file formats, an industry
standard platform and a widely shared database structure. None of this is protected under any
Intellectual Property rights that ARCHOS is aware of.

Furthermore, there has been no breach of the NDA. Everything that was created by and for ARCHOS
during the negotiations was based on ARCHOS’ database structure and ARCHOS’ created
parameters. ARCHOS has always been committed to keeping its NDA undertakings and works in
good faith to maintain them.

The unfounded and slanderous allegations by Funky Android not only affect ARCHOS’ reputation, but
they are also harmful to ARCHOS’ partners and to the applications development community.
ARCHOS has thus been forced to seek legal advice and has instructed its legal counsel to pursue, if
necessary, all forms of recourse before the French courts in order to protect its interests, reputation
and image, and consequently those of its partners.