This isn’t our usual fare, but last week it came to our notice that there’s some legal fisticuffs going on in the telco space, and we just had to take a closer look. In the red corner is Airtel Nigeria. In the blue corner (not necessarily their colour), we’ve got Visocom.
It’s safe to assume that Airtel needs no further introduction. Visocom Global, on the other hand, is a company that describes it self as a virtual technology solutions provider. Before last week, I’d never heard about them.
So what’s the scuffle about? Patents, it turns out. I’m sure telcos get sued every day of the week, but we’re in Nigeria and it’s not everyday you see a full fledged patent licencing dispute going down in our backyard.
Here are the details. Airtel launched a service called Airtel Talk Time Advance Service, a product that allows their customers “borrow” airtime from the network. For the convenience, the network charges 10 percent of the amount advanced on their next recharge. It looks like the service has been around for quite some time. A year, at least.
Now, along comes Visocom who claims to own the patent to the service and its delivery in the Nigerian region and, according to our sources, has not licensed it to Airtel. Our sources tell us that Visocom’s attempts to apprise Airtel Nigeria of their rights were rebuffed with the reply that the service Airtel runs was licensed to them by the “original patent holder” — whoever that is.
Long story short, they are now in court. Or they’ve been in court since November 2012.
I made effort to get in touch with both companies to find out their sides of the story. Visocom responded thus:
“Our side of the story is devoid of any ambiguity and therefore pretty straight forward. Our company, Visocom Limited, owns the intellectual property right to the “Virtual Airtime Loan Process”,with Patent No. NG/P/2012/027, which Airtel Nigeria is in clear breach of with its “Airtel Advance Talk Services.”
We had approached Airtel through our solicitors severally informing them of the said infringement, but they chose as a matter of deliberate strategy and corporate arrogance to ignore us. So, as a very responsible and law abiding corporate entity, we initiated a case against them at the Federal High Court, Ikoyi in November 2012. On the 10th of January, 2013, we obtained an order of interlocutory injunction restraining them from further running of the service throughout the pendency of the case before the court. The order was given by the Honourable Justice, Musa Kurya of court 12.
We are totally resolute and unwavering in our pursuit of this case. We are very primed for the long haul; justice must be done!”.
Okay, cowboys.
Airtel, on the other hand, is yet to reply to our request for comment.
How this will pan out is still anyone’s guess. Visocom might have won the first round by obtaining an injunction barring Airtel from continuing to offer the alleged infringing service, pending the determination of the substantive suit. But as far as we can tell, Airtel hasn’t complied, suggesting that they aren’t going to budge. Airtel is by far the bigger company here and they can certainly afford to deploy their vast resources (financial, social and political) to prosecute the suit. In fact it’s possible that they’ll just sit there and wait till their opponent exhausts itself.
Despite being the much smaller company however, Visocom has indicated that they have no intention of backing down either, which means that there’s likely going to be a long and thirsty legal battle ahead. In any case, it’s officially on. Combatants, bring your big boy pants. Everyone else, bring your popcorn.
We’ll keep you updated as things develop. In the meantime, we’re sounding off some of our legal friends who might have an opinion. There’s the issue of Nigerian patents — how much are those worth? And will there be consequences for Airtel’s apparent non-compliance with a court order? Don’t go away folks.
[Image via Flickr/Marines]
