Vodacom Please Call Me - The truth

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Jamie McKane

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Vodacom Please Call Me - The truth

Vodacom’s legal battle with Kenneth Makate over compensation for his Please Call Me idea made headlines this month after Vodacom said it will pay him “reasonable compensation”.

Vodacom said, as per a Constitutional Court order, its CEO has determined the amount of reasonable compensation payable to Makate and now considers the matter as settled and closed.
 
Bwahahaha, always thought this tool was taking a bit too much credit. Vodacom has messed this one up royally.
 
Makate Idea was stolen by the Bullies.

Trying to avoid this is not good.

Vodacom - pay Makate a Billion Rand and Close books.

10 Million or even 100 Million is never going to be a settlement figure.

Makate may even die during the wait for the Cash ?
 
DXL said:
Makate Idea was stolen by the Bullies.

Trying to avoid this is not good.

Vodacom - pay Makate a Billion Rand and Close books.

10 Million or even 100 Million is never going to be a settlement figure.

Makate may even die during the wait for the Cash ?
Click to expand...

Makate deserves absolutely zero cash.. he invented nothing.

(although this is not new information)
 
Would not be surprised if Makate is being bankrolled by a TP.
 
I'm not sure I wanna be this oke even when and if he gets a payout. Imagine how many people and NPO's are going to hound him for handout's now.
 
For some reason people think that a corporation offering to pay an employee 15% of the revenue from an idea presented by the employee is standard operating procedure. Nothing could be further from the truth.
The legal FACT in intellectual property law is that that the employer owns any and all IP created by an employee related to his work. So even if MTN was not involved, since this guy worked for Vodacom and came up with an idea for Vodacom, they already own the idea and the employee has already been compensated by getting a salary every month.
Most companies will give an employee nothing or nearly nothing for a patent, I have one (registered internationally) myself for which I received the princely sum of R10.
If Vodacom is offering this guy a Million or R10Million, then they are actually doing him a helluva favour.
R1billion, is utter bull.
There is a reason the Constitutional Court did not make a determination of an amount, they just said "while he worked there he was promised reasonable compensation", and under that presumption Vodacom should negotiate a reasonable settlement with him. Obviously they are deadlocked since he doesn't want to budge from his unreasonable demand.
If Vodacom offered him a months salary when all this started he would have been happy as a clam, and used the money to pay a deposit on a new 3 series BMW. Now since every second lawyer in RSA has him signed up for a part of the pie he believes he is owed 15%.
His lawyers also know this, which is why he is trying to go to the court of public opinion. If a judge was pressed to set an amount he would get less than the lawyers cost for a day. He might actually get R10 if the judge was unimpressed enough!
 
McT said:
Would not be surprised if Makate is being bankrolled by a TP.
Click to expand...
He is.

He could not afford the legal fees so right at the beginning he received funds from other people in exchange for some of the money Vodacom would have to pay out if he won the battle.
 
I don't believe that Vodacom owes him anything, even if the prior registration of the patent by MTN was invalid.

He worked for Vodacom, and any IP that he created while he worked there belongs to Vodacom.

Not sure what the CC was up to, but a months salary bonus would surely be "reasonable compensation" !
 
I invented a spring-loaded clip and a self-aligning trolley guide for non-standard 40 foot container-spreaders when I was working for Safmarine (as a training officer, not floating staff) in 1974. They initially said it would not work, but the local stevedoring co attached this to a spreader and found it sped up the transfer from ship to truck by 2 mins, as no-one had to guide the spreader into place manually for non-ISO containers (then from Eastern Europe and Iran)

After about a year of nagging them, I found that they had patented it without mentioning my name in the proof of origin papers. The patent attorneys were alarmed when I told them I had working drawings dated 2 years before their initial submission. I was paid R20 000 and told that my services were no longer required. I went to live in England for 4 years

In 1984 I moved house and found that my friendly new neighbour was the head accountant at Safmarine. He looked up the minutes of the meeting I had with Safmarine's board on 31st October 1975 which had a one-line sentence - "Record removed at request of board"

So much for honesty. Non-ISO containers were used until about 1990. If there are 500 such containers on a ship and they save 15 or so hours by using this rig, that is R12000 less port fees and idle time per ship. Work it out
 
chrisc said:
I invented a spring-loaded clip and a self-aligning trolley guide for non-standard 40 foot container-spreaders when I was working for Safmarine (as a training officer, not floating staff) in 1974. They initially said it would not work, but the local stevedoring co attached this to a spreader and found it sped up the transfer from ship to truck by 2 mins, as no-one had to guide the spreader into place manually for non-ISO containers (then from Eastern Europe and Iran)

After about a year of nagging them, I found that they had patented it without mentioning my name in the proof of origin papers. The patent attorneys were alarmed when I told them I had working drawings dated 2 years before their initial submission. I was paid R20 000 and told that my services were no longer required. I went to live in England for 4 years

In 1984 I moved house and found that my friendly new neighbour was the head accountant at Safmarine. He looked up the minutes of the meeting I had with Safmarine's board on 31st October 1975 which had a one-line sentence - "Record removed at request of board"

So much for honesty. Non-ISO containers were used until about 1990. If there are 500 such containers on a ship and they save 15 or so hours by using this rig, that is R12000 less port fees and idle time per ship. Work it out
Click to expand...
Damn! :mad:
 
DXL said:
Makate Idea was stolen by the Bullies.

Trying to avoid this is not good.

Vodacom - pay Makate a Billion Rand and Close books.

10 Million or even 100 Million is never going to be a settlement figure.

Makate may even die during the wait for the Cash ?
Click to expand...
Not the sharpest tool in the tool box are you?

Did you read the article, he is claiming royalties for a product he didn't even invent.

He should get nothing
 
Jola said:
I don't believe that Vodacom owes him anything, even if the prior registration of the patent by MTN was invalid.

He worked for Vodacom, and any IP that he created while he worked there belongs to Vodacom.

Not sure what the CC was up to, but a months salary bonus would surely be "reasonable compensation" !
Click to expand...
except for his manager said that he would be compensated for it
 
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