MTC accused of copyright infringement, again

A Namibian man who claims to be the inventor of the Mobile Telecommunication Limited’s (MTC’s) Aweh concept has once again laid a criminal charge against MTC for copyright infringement and allegedly using his concept without compensation.

Keetmanshoop resident Willem Eiman claims he first introduced the concept of multiple purchasing of Aweh products to MTC in April 2017. Eiman says MTC launched the product in 2020 based on his idea but refused to acknowledge that it was his concept or to compensate him.

“MTC has violated my copyright since 2020. MTC also tried in March and June 2021 to convince the Business and Intellectual Property Authority (Bipa) to revoke my copyright which Bipa refused, because only a court of law can do that.
“Since then MTC did not challenge Bipa in a court of law to set aside my copyright. In other words, my copyright with registration number 22/01/21/492 is still valid until a court of law decides otherwise,” says Eiman.

He says MTC has now moved forward to remove the subscription on all Aweh products to allow customers to purchase more Aweh products, which he claims further infringes his copyright registration.

Eiman registered a case with the Namibian Police on Monday last week.

MTC corporate communications specialist John Ekongo says Eiman has initiated litigation against MTC and that MTC has responded thereto.

“The matter remains pending before the court, as such, we will not be making any comment,” says Ekandjo.

In court documents seen by The Namibian, Eiman in 2020 asked the High Court for an order appointing a registered chartered accountant to prepare and submit a full account of all MTC’s business from 26 May 2020 to a date of judgement to determine the revenue MTC has generated from his concept.

Furthermore, he claimed 15% of the total income generated by MTC based on his concept and 15% or an amount equal to 15% of all future income generated by MTC based on his concept, plus interest of 20% per year from the date of judgement to the date of final payment.

“I opened a civil case against MTC Namibia, it was in the High Court of Namibia, which I withdrew in August 2024 to issue a new summons. The summons was, however, not issued due to the closure of the law firm which was representing me,” says Eiman.

In a joint status report filed at the court in September 2024, Eiman’s claim was struck and he was granted leave to amend his claim within 30 days.

Eiman opted not to amend his claim and intended to re-institute a claim afresh.

“In the premise the current matter should be considered finalised and removed from the roll,” it says.

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