BUSINESS NEWS - Two Gugulethu entrepreneurs applied on Tuesday (June 18) to the Court of the Commissioner of Patents in Pretoria for an interdict to stop Nedbank from using a card blocking system they say was stolen from them.
Nedbank denies stealing their patented IT system that allows customers to block bank cards that are suspected of being used for fraud, and says it will apply to have the patent revoked on the grounds that “the claimed inventions are not new” and therefore “not patentable”.
The software, under the brand name Instablock, was developed in 2015 by two award-winning IT developers from Gugulethu in the Western Cape, Thandile Jwambi and Tatolo Kutumane.
They are demanding more than R280 million in damages. This figure is based on the estimated royalties they say they would have received had Nedbank acquired the software legally. In 2015, Nedbank made R9.3 billion in bank card service fees.
The case has been taken on and funded by SA Litigation Funding Company (Salfco).
