A 14-year battle between software developer Neil Harvey and Medscheme over alleged copyright infringement will now go to arbitration, reports Financial Mail.
FM reports that it would be one of the largest amounts paid in a local copyright-related case. The arbitration case is due to be heard in February 2022, and Harvey is confident after a private arbitrator, Judge Fritz Brand, ruled in October last year that his company, Neil Harvey Associates (NHA), ‘had succeeded in establishing an infringement of its copyright’.
Ultimately, the case was split in two: the first part, a claim of R21m for copying the electronic membership interface, and a second part, over Harvey’s R370m claim for expected loss of earnings, which is set down for hearing next year. But since Brand ruled in NHA’s favour in the first phase, Harvey is confident it will win the second leg, too. In part, this is because Brand’s ruling was unequivocal, saying Medscheme’s argument that there had been ‘joint authorship and tacit licence must fail’. However, it wasn’t a wholesale victory for Harvey, since Brand awarded NHA just R2.7m – far less than R21m he’d wanted, which could have doubled with interest.