Safaricom Chief Customer Officer Sylvia Muthoni Mulinge (Left) and CEO Peter Ndegwa. Ndegwa came in one year ago on April Fool’s Day.
Peter Ndegwa’s one year anniversary in office came with a defeat in court.
Yesterday, the Industrial Property Tribunal put an injunction on Safaricom from using or advertising MPESA Bill Manager for Businesses until a case filed by Kib Capital Group Limited is heard and determined.
Kibo Capital Limited registered the e-Receipting solution in 2017, presented it as a business idea to Safaricom’s Senior Product Manager for MPESA Ms. Lilian Njuguna the same year. The meetings did not materialize into a contract only for Safaricom to launch a similar product in 2021.
The intellectual property theft by Safaricom was unprecedented as its lawyers even threatened to ave KIPI deregister Kibo as the rightful owners of the Utility Model. How appalling?
This is not the first time Safaricom has been caught stealing, the other times, they have gotten away, not because of their financial muscle, but because one, the inventor had not properly registered their products, two, they intimidated judges and registering entities even as seen from their threats on Kibo Capital.
This time it will be different.
It is cnyakundi.com that brought you the story first, we shall keep you updated on the going ons.
The best thing for Safaricom to do in the case of the properly registered Utility Model is to own up and do the respectful and honorable thing by appreciating the inventor’s work, not threaten. This shouldn’t have been a court case.
The Injunction
“It is hereby ordered that pending the hearing and determination of this application inter partes, interim orders be and is hereby issued restraining the Respondents its directors, officers, their agents, servants or any of them or otherwise from using, advertising of offering services. or dealing with the Requester’s utility model’s No. 163 being an invention titled: Universally Verifiable Electronic Receipt for Mobile Money Payments in the name of Onyango Jasper Ochieng, Utility Model no.168 being and invention titled: Sales Initiation Closure Notification Generator and Recording Engine in the name of Onyango Jasper Ochieng, Utility Model No.169 being an invention titled: Biller Integration and Receipting System in the name of Kibo Capital Group Limited and Utility Model No. 195 being an invention titled: Universally Verifiable Electronic Banking Slip in the name of Onyango Jasper Ochieng”, Industrial Property Tribunal said.
Peter Ndegwa must crack the whip on these embarrassing events where Safaricom is caught in petty and serious squabbles over copyright infringement, data and airtime thefts, and low-quality service, It is time to let go people like Sylvia Mulinge who has been accused of murder by drunk driving.
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