Two of South Africa's largest companies, Standard Bank and MTN, have been served with summonses that could result in a claim nearing R1 billion (US$ 137 million).
The claim is for alleged infringement of technology patents in establishing and running the joint Standard Bank-MTN cellphone banking venture, MTN Banking.
The claim is by 3MFuture Africa, a company controlled by a German information technology expert, Wolfram Reiners, who is a South African permanent resident.
Reiners claims that Standard Bank and MTN used technology developed by him and two others in 2000 to launch and maintain MTN Banking.
The technology allows for credit cards to be securely used where the credit card itself is not present. With the technology the card can be briefly activated electronically when a transaction takes place and then deactivated when out of use. This effectively prevents fraudsters from using the card, even if they have the card details.
In issuing the summons for a claim to be heard in the Patents Court in Pretoria, Reiners wants to put a halt to the alleged continued infringement of his internationally registered patents and requires full details of how much profit the two companies have made as a consequence of their alleged use of the patented technology.
Reiners has chosen to take his case to the Patents Court initially because his legal advisers say he can get a court date by early next year while a high court case will be a far more drawn out affair.
The extent of the profits will define the rand amount of the claim that will be made. At this stage the estimate ranges from a low of R300 million (US$ 41 million) up to a maximum of R950m US$ 130 million).
Reiners has retained the services of Heath Executive Consultants, which is headed by former anti-corruption judge, advocate Willem Heath, to do the forensic investigations into the infringements.
Reiners says that between April 2001 and November 2002 he held more than 20 meetings with Standard Bank at its request after an initial meeting to interest them in the technology.
During this period a meeting was also allegedly held with Santie Botha, who at the time was the ABSA Bank director in charge of marketing, who then moved to take over as marketing director of MTN. She was provided with extensive details on the technology.
