Quad alleges non-payment by Datawind; to countersue

New Delhi: Quad Electronics, the contract manufacturer of world’s cheapest tablet Aakash, today said it has not been paid for its work by the tablet maker, Datawind. Quad alleged that the letter of credit issued by Datawind was dishonoured and it has not received any payment for its work. “The letter of credit (LC) given was not honoured by Barclays bank as our bank (Bank of Bahrain and Kuwait) is yet to receive a single dollar on the LC given by them. The banks have proof of non-payments,” Quad’s Managing Director Raminder Singh Soin said in an e-mail query. [caption id=“attachment_277761” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Reuters”]  [/caption] Datawind CEO Suneet Singh Tuli had yesterday claimed that his company has cleared all the payments that was due to Quad, except for the 600 units that remain unpaid by IIT-Rajasthan. According to Quad, Datawind has to pay for 8,000 units supplied and additional inventory already procured. Datawind, it said, has only paid about $60,000 for 1,500 samples that were billed directly to the company and were not part of the LC. Quad has served a legal notice to Datawind on 30 March for non-payment and breach of contract for total of $1.12 million, which includes outstanding dues and inventory procured on behalf of Datawind against its purchase orders. “If they had paid, why (would) our company will give legal notice for non payments to datawind in UK,” Soin said. Quad MD denied Datawind’s allegation of violating its Intellectual Property Right on Aakash by signing direct agreement with IIT Rajasthan for development of next generation device. “The software and PCB Gerber (printed circuit board file format) required to design a product were not given to Quad and therefore there is no question of infringement since Quad was restricted to only manufacturing as per the specifications and instructions received from Datawind,” Quad MD said. Soin said that the design of the tablet belongs to Datawind and there is no reason for a manufacturing company to breach the MSA (Manufacturing supplier agreement) that restricts it to manufacturing only. He said Quad has freedom of action and can manufacture or design similar products as per agreement signed with Datawind. “We signed MoU  with IIT for development of convergence products not for LCAD (Low Cost Access Device). This is known to Datawind,” Soin said. PTI