Companies

Safaricom taken to court in fresh copyright row

collymore

Safaricom CEO, Mr Bob Collymore. A budding innovator is seeking to stop Safaricom from using a popular service dubbed ‘Maliza Stori’ that allows subscribers to buy more airtime on credit. Photo | File

A budding innovator is seeking to stop Safaricom from using a popular service dubbed ‘Maliza Stori’ that allows subscribers to buy more airtime on credit.

Mr Simon Otieno Omondi, who court papers describe as “an adult working in Nairobi for gain”, alleges that the mobile phone services provider infringed on the copyright of his intellectual property called Maliza Story Service.

In a civil suit filed at the Milimani Commercial Court, Mr Omondi is seeking general and punitive damages and an order directing Safaricom to forfeit all infringing copies of his work or destroy the infringing materials in its custody.

Mr Omondi also wants the court to declare that the infringement violates his fundamental rights under the Copyright Act No.12 of 200.

Safaricom has denied infringing on Mr Omondi’s purported literary work, saying the concept of credit advance for mobile phone users has been used widely by Safaricom’s main shareholder, Vodafone, in other countries.

For instance, Safaricom says in India, the credit facility is known as ‘Chhota Credit’, ‘Sallefny Shoran’ in Egypt and ‘Anticipo de Saldo’ in Spain.

‘Maliza Stori’ is a service that enables pre-pay subscribers to access airtime on credit for a fee of 10 per cent for each request.

The money is recovered from the next top up.

Mr Justice George Kanyi Kimondo on Friday directed lawyers acting for Mr Omondi and Safaricom to file and exchange relevant court documents ahead of the hearing he set for June 13.

Mr Omondi wants the court to find that he is the copyright owner of the ‘Maliza Story Service’ and the literary work— “Credit advance of all value for mobile phone users,” which he says he had submitted to Safaricom as business proposals.

Through a non-profit legal organisation, Kibera Law Centre, Mr Omondi says he sent the business proposal titled ‘Maliza Story Service’ to the company on June 5, 2009 with a view to improving the firm’s services to subscribers.

He says that after sending the proposal, Safaricom indicated disinterest in the solution, only for him to find the company running a promotion dubbed ‘Maliza Stori! with the Improved Okoa Jahazi’ in the local newspapers two weeks later.

“Even if the alleged proposals were forwarded, the company already had the possession and knowledge of the concept by virtue of learning from other Vodafone operators and was in the process of rolling out the same,” argues Safaricom in defence.

Mr Omondi is accusing Safaricom of using the legend ‘Maliza Story’ and unlawfully altering it to read ‘Maliza Stori.’

He further says the company virtually embodied its credit advance services with attributes contained in the copyrighted works.

Labour and skill

“In coming up with the literary work, I expended labour, skill and in addition to the business concept, a uniquely artistic legend titled Maliza Story, which Safaricom brazenly infringed and converted for its use and benefit,” submits Mr Omondi in his suit papers.

Mr Omondi says he has certificates issued by the Kenya Copyright Board to prove his case, but Safaricom says the certificates were issued on August 12 last year after Okoa Jahazi had been launched and the promotion of Maliza Stori concluded.

The firm further says that Maliza Stori was a marketing cliche coined by its public relations and marketing agents, RedSky Ltd. 

Two years ago, businessman Hoswel Mbugua Njuguna sued Safaricom and Equity Bank for breach of confidence and use of his idea for commercial gain over the innovative mobile banking system, M-Kesho.

The platform allows customers to perform basic banking transactions on their Equity Bank accounts like deposits, withdrawals, loan applications, processing and reception from their handsets.

Mr Njuguna was seeking an injunction restraining Equity from using information he alleged he confided to the bank’s agent. Safaricom was brought to the suit later as an interested party after it partnered with the bank.

Mr Njuguna had claimed he was the author of the original work titled ‘Weka Usaidike’ which he submitted for registration in July 2006.

He said that in August 2006, he confided the idea to two agents of the bank with an aim of negotiating an agreement.

He argued that the bank and Safaricom created M-Kesho with characteristics identical to the product he had discussed with the two agents.

The product was launched in May 2010 and was responded to have attracted 200,000 accounts later that year. In December 2008, Safaricom was sued by a Nairobi resident, Mr Christopher Ondieki, who claimed the technology of the company’s money transfer service — M-Pesa — was his invention.

Mr Ondieki told Lady Justice Joyce Khaminwa that he forwarded a proposal of the technology to Safaricom after which he was invited to demonstrate his invention.

He claimed that the company implemented the invention without his consent.

He sought a permanent injunction stopping Safaricom from using the technology and an inquiry into damages suffered or alternatively an account of profits.

We could not immediately establish the status of the two cases.