End of story? Humbling Cisco in a court of law certainly qualifies Hosinski as one of the Top 25 people who impacted the channel in 2008
One could easily stop writing at this point and think, well, that's enough. Story done, time to go home and have a bottle of Leinenkugels Sunset Wheat beer.
Except the beer will have to wait. Hosinski's story goes on.
It's hard to measure the impact of Hosinski on the channel because that impact is only starting to be felt. That's because the IT industry is full of reseller agreements with three key clauses that the Superior Court Judge in the case ruled "unconscionable," or unenforceable, because they are unfair to one party, which in this case is Infra-Comm.
Those three are the non-negotiable term of the contract, the right of a vendor to terminate the contract with an established reseller without cause, and damage limitations.
That ruling is now a legal precedent, meaning that not only Cisco but all IT vendors will have to look carefully at the wording of their reseller agreements.
The case also shined a very bright light on the dark inner workings of deal registration programs and how vendors can grab a registered deal and hand it to another channel partner.
So now, Cisco is deciding whether or not to appeal. IT vendors are re-examining their reseller agreements. Solution providers are scrutinizing their vendor relationships.
No, the full impact hasn't started at all.
