Should Vodacom pay up?

Does Vodacom owe Nkosana Makate compensation?

  • Yes

    Votes: 103 31.0%

  • No

    Votes: 189 56.9%

  • Other

    Votes: 40 12.0%
  • Total voters
    332
To those saying work as an employee, the idea/invention was not part of his job. He was employed as a junior accountant at the time, not in R&D , sales or anything else. It really depends on how the concept was delivered and what grounds.

Big reason why researchers and companies share concepts like NDA's etc. If he was older at the time, he would have possibly known that before sharing the idea or at least be given the opportunity of council. Willing to bet that's part of the courts consideration.

And 5% on net revenue from calls responded to for a please call me? That's cheap commission wise.
 
I'd say yes pay him, but R20 billion is a bit over the top, if they offered him R47 million they more than likely can pay 10 times that without batting an eye. So pay him at the very least R200 million.

And if they do opt to pay him R200 million that was my idea, so Makate, you owe me 5% of that.


:D
 
Hahaha yes they must pay up, they steal billions every year from their customers, its only fair someone does the same to them.

I dont even like this Makate character coz i think he is greedy, but Shameel must pay.
 
A large corporation been taken to task like this? Hell yeah! Sign me up for such content.
 
ToxicBunny said:
Personal opinion is nope...

The courts disagree though for a variety of complicated reasons, so Makate is going to become very wealthy at some point.
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No, why?
It seems Vodacom didn't have a clear innovation policy and the guy was promised profit share. Other companies I've seen have a general clause that days any discoveries or innovation made while they employ you belong to them. They then have an exceptional discovery bonus.

Vodacom don't seem to have this from the little I've read of this case. Jannie did say something about a bonus thing but Vodacom don't seem to have brought this up in court. At least from what I've read in the news.
 
STORMERSFAN said:
How much are the lawyer fees more or less?
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That will in itself be subject to a lawsuit. Agreement with current team does not seem to be public, but previous team (Raining Men Trade) are claiming 50% (their claim seems rather weak).
 
Who cares what a bunch of bored retirees of mybroadband think? Jealousy is like cancer... It consumes the host.
 
Kosmik said:
To those saying work as an employee, the idea/invention was not part of his job. He was employed as a junior accountant at the time, not in R&D , sales or anything else. It really depends on how the concept was delivered and what grounds.

Big reason why researchers and companies share concepts like NDA's etc. If he was older at the time, he would have possibly known that before sharing the idea or at least be given the opportunity of council. Willing to bet that's part of the courts consideration.

And 5% on net revenue from calls responded to for a please call me? That's cheap commission wise.
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It’s calls and advertising. They sell ads on please call me’s.
 
I think the problem is that he has probably racked up millions in lawyer fees to get to this point. That R47m wont last long once he'd pay his legal team.

They should probably come to some settlement
 
lkswan747 said:
Is he in fact the "inventor"?
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Technically yes.
MTN had a similar service which was patented and shelved, it was called call me back.
Vodacom created their own and branded it please call me and took it to market first.
To date we all know it as Please call me, so yes technically the name and service was his idea.
 
Yeah, R5000 should be good enough. It's not like he invented a formula for cold fusion. He literally just sent a "free" network message, so customized the text on an existing feature.
 
Bastards made promises then tried to wiggle out of it.

Kuk en betaal julle donners

110 million + all the legal fees sounds fair to me - 10m for the initial reward and 5m a year for all the pain that he had to go through year after year to get what was promised to him in the first place.

Anyone who has been screwed out of their incentive bonuses will sympathise - quick to promise, slow to pay / every excuse not to pay.

It's not like Vodacom gives a cent back of those enormous profits to the consumer anyway.
 
Going to have to pay something as that is what was promised by AKC the cnut.

That said, in my world, work IP has always belonged to work regardless of what it is.

VC's Hackathon is, I'm sure, a direct result of this PCM mess
 
Crabby said:
Going to have to pay something as that is what was promised by AKC the cnut.

That said, in my world, work IP has always belonged to work regardless of what it is.

VC's Hackathon is, I'm sure, a direct result of this PCM mess
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But its not work IP, that's the rub.
 
Here's what we occasionally do instead. Dutch call (ring and hang up).

That will be R50M, ta.
 
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