Reading between the lines on the XenForo-IB settlement

My main questions over the settlement were would KAM retain control and would fault be found with either side. Kier has clearly and unequivocally announced the XenForo remain the property of KAM and is in no way associated with Internet Brands. (emphasis added by myself)...

...so my first question has been answered fully and completely by Kier.

On the face of it, it would seem that due to the confidential nature of the settlement my second question will never be answered. However XenForo's lawyers have put a pretty bold statement up on their website...

Source: http://gracelaw.com/NewsXF.html

It seems that a layperson like Kier was able to make an announcement without giving anything major away (other than the fact that KAM retained full control of XenForo which was probably not confidential anyway) but the professionals at the law firm have let a few cats out of the bag. I can understand them being happy to have defeated a behemoth like IB but it would seem that in their excitement they have given the game away.

The statement clearly states that all of IB's subsidiaries claims against XenForo Ltd were dismissed. The statement also clearly states that XenForo was built from scratch without any VB/Jelsoft code. The statement even makes a provocative statement aimed at IB implicating them of threatening behaviour and false allegations.

It seems quite clear that IB were unable to show any proof that XenForo had stolen or reused code from VB/Jelsoft software. It's also obvious that IB were aware that all their claims were thought by the courts to be without basis and of a false/malicious nature. And so IB agreed to settle with XenForo rather than lose the case at the trial stage where their embarrassment would be made public.

The only thing we don't know is what XenForo accepted in order to settle. It was either IB paying XenForo's legal costs or IB paying Xenforo's legal costs + compensation or (and most likely) IB agreed to drop all action in every jurisdiction against XenForo and to not come back and sue them again but each party pays it's own costs.I always thought that IB had maliciously taken XenForo to court for building a better software and now XenForo's lawyers have confirmed it.

VB5 must be Karma paying IB a visit.

 

In all likelyhood, the only winners were the lawyers on both sides.

Before a final verdict, it would likely cost hundreds of thousands more, so both parties agreed to settle and be done with it.

A good friend of mine was involved in a suit with his former business partner. After 3 years, and hundreds of thousands in legal fees, both parties decided to drop suit and be done with it.

 

If you trust a press release by a lawyer I have a bridge to sell you... There's no legally binding nature to that press release. I would like to know the true outcome as much as anyone but that press release has no answers.

 

No one is ever going to know apart from the actual people involved. You can speculate anything you want but as long as XF keeps on been the same great platform it is now I couldn't really care

 

It's not about trusting the lawyers, this case was settled with gags in place. IB would've been all over XF's lawyers for making slanderous comments about the IB lawsuit being vindictive unless they knew that they didnt have a case.

Basically IB indulged in a frivolous law suit to try and beat a competitor in the courts because they couldn't beat them in product quality.

 

Maybe XF wanted the gag order because they are being forced to hand over a percentage over every XF license sold to IB, and if there wasn't a gag order people who hated IB would stop buying XF licenses because they are supporting IB as well. It's just as plausible as any other theory presented.

 

I'm with Roach. I didn't care about the drama and all the stuff before, I will not care from now on. XF is really a nice platform and I've enjoyed working with it over the past year. I'm happy the developers are finally left alone to do their job.

Yeah, probably VB5 is a bit of bad karma