NAIROBI: A private company has accused Safaricom and Kenya Power of illegally using its trademark.
Colour Planet Ltd in its case filed before High Court judge Francis Gikonyo claims the two firms have infringed its trademark ‘Okoa Stima’. The firm’s director Anthony Chege told the court that the idea was mooted in 2012 and in August the same year, the company introduced it to Kenya Power.
“Due to unresponsiveness of the third respondent (KP) on November 22, 2012 the applicant entered into a memorandum of understanding with Adtel Ltd. Unfortunately, the agreement lapsed due to non-performance,” Chege swore in his affidavit.
He said his company moved to Kenya Power again in 2013, and this time the electricity provider suggested it should approach a financial institution to introduce the concept as the corporation could not have finances.
“I met the Managing Director Dr Ben Chumo and presented the aforesaid concept to him,” he said. He added that the company struck a deal with Kenya Commercial Bank, an agreement which he argued is still in place. He said the concept to sell electricity tokens on credit was passed to both Safaricom and Julia Obura for consideration in May 22, 2014.
Safaricom, Chege claimed, in its reply to the e-mail wanted to have the company cede its rights to the concept before any engagement.
The court heard that the initial idea was to roll out the plan under the name Shika Power but the company decided to change the name to the current one in order not to confuse the services with Eveready’s advertising slogan Shika paka power.
For Okoa Stima, Chege said, he used Sh5.8 million to develop mobile designs and a further Sh125,000 a month paid to server providers. The court heard that Obura was also putting her claim on the concept but Colour Planet’s director held that he was the sole proprietor.
“It came as a surprise that the second respondent ( Obura) claimed ownership of the concept Okoa stima and the first respondent (Safaricom) has infringed the applicant’s trademark by running advertisements,” he said. He asked the court to bar the two firms from using the name. The case will be heard on July 23.
