A court has thrown out a case filed by an innovator who had accused Safaricom of infringing on his copyright due to lack of sufficient evidence. Solut Technology filed a case against the telco accusing it of using his idea of a mobile software application he dubbed the Wavu application that he submitted to its Zindua Café platform in 2016. The platform invites innovators to pitch their ideas for possible collaboration with the firm.
After Safaricom rejected the application, the innovator accused the corporation of launching to the market a similar software christened Thibitisha said to be copying the fundamental expressions of his innovation. High Court has however trashed the application. Justice Freda Mugambi explained that copyright law protects expression of ideas and not the ideas themselves. For copyright infringement to be proven, there has to be proof that protected elements, in this case source codes, have been copied. Here, the source code was not disclosed; this weakened the argument of the plaintiff.
The court further clarified that the protection of mere ideas under copyright might hinder progress and innovation. Safaricom, on its part, said the Wavu application was independently developed and that by submitting his application to Zindua Café, the innovator had offered the firm irrevocable rights over his idea. The telecom giant, in the second place, argued that the terms of the Zindua Café platform were public and fair; users were not put under undue duress to submit their ideas.
The ruling brings into sharp focus the need to secure protection for the intellectual property at the outset, before submission onto open platforms.