The constitutional court has dismissed an application brought by Nkosana Makate, the man who it found had invented the popular “please call me” service, ordering him to pay the costs of the application.
“The constitutional court has considered this application. It has concluded that the application should be dismissed as it bears no prospects of success,” the judgment, issued late on Friday, said. “The application is dismissed with costs.”
Makate is seeking a cut of the revenue that the “please call me” service has generated since its inception 16 years ago — an amount believed to run into billions of rand.
Vodacom has argued that it’s difficult to determine the figure, saying the service was never treated in its income statement as a revenue-generating product, making it hard to come up with an accurate number.
Moneyweb reported that Vodacom had argued to the court that it was unclear which calls were induced by a “please call me” message and which were not.
But Makate suggested that to determine the revenue, a “simple computer program” was required to identify calls made within a set period of a “please call me” message being sent to a particular number and then calculate the revenue generated for Vodacom by the calls, Moneyweb said.
Makate, who has accused Vodacom of trying to renege on its obligation to pay him for the invention, argued to the court that Vodacom has substantial financial records that could be used to determine how much it owes him.
The parties started their court-ordered negotiations in September 2016.
In a statement in January, Vodacom said the constituional court order that the parties negotiate in good faith to determine reasonable compensation, was “clear and unambiguous”.
“Under the guise of seeking clarification on the order, Mr Makate is in effect asking the constitutional court to issue a new order in the form of a share of revenue as the sole methodology for determining reasonable compensation,” the company said.
“Vodacom remains committed to negotiations with Mr Makate and is prepared to resume talks at his earliest convenience,” it added, saying that Makate’s application to the court was “premature”.
“The process set out in the constitutional court order, including the intervention of the Vodacom Group CEO in the event of a deadlock, must be exhausted by the parties before the courts can be approached for any relief.” — (c) 2017 NewsCentral Media
