Oct 2009 Financial News

Paymaster exec admits to no copyright discussions

Oct 15, 2009

PAYMASTER executive Dr Maurice McNaughton yesterday admitted under cross-examination that there were no discussions with software developer Paul Lowe about copyright ownership of the multiple-bill payment system that is at the centre of the billion-dollar lawsuit against Lowe and Caribbean conglomerate GraceKennedy.

McNaughton, who was being cross-examined in the Supreme Court by attorney Vincent Chen, said there was also no written agreement with Lowe regarding who would own the copyright to the programme Paymaster had approached him to develop.

McNaughton, however, said that the programme belonged to Paymaster as it was developed by Lowe based on specification and requirement from Paymaster.

"The discussion [with Lowe] was that what he was to build was going to be for Paymaster...," McNaughton told the court. "Paymaster's requirements were specific. The requirements were what drove the development of the programme."

McNaughton had agreed earlier under cross-examination that the specifications he gave Lowe were deficient in detail to build a working programme but noted that the specifications were in fact "user requirements". He said that Lowe would have had to, as was the norm, develop his own programme for the working of the multiple bill payment system.

Lowe subsequently sold the programme to GraceKennedy, which in 2000 established Bill Express, a subsidiary that competes directly with Paymaster in the bill payment market.

Paymaster's boss Audrey Marks is suing both GraceKennedy and Lowe for $1.7-billion for copyright infringement of her business plan and computer programme.

Marks is claiming that this infringement has caused her millions of dollars in losses.

She was the first to implement the bill payment model using state-of-the-art technology back in 1997.


Source:
Paul Henry
Jamaica Observer
Thursday, October 15, 2009

http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/html/20091014T200000-0500_161823_OBS_PAYMASTER_EXEC_ADMITS_TO_NO_COPYRIGHT_DISCUSSIONS.asp