| Viewers may remember that back in February, Belizean businessman Curtis Swasey accused the telecoms company, BTL of giving away his intellectual property to make someone else rich.
According to Swasey, he entered into a non-disclosure agreement with BTL and that's when he felt comfortable to pitch the idea of lottery texting. This new and easy form of gambling allows cellphone owners to use their phone credits to play by simply texting in.
He claims that he worked with BTL for 2 years, and quite abruptly, they ended all business arrangements. Weeks later, he heard about the Mek Mi Rich gameshow; he claims that he eventually realized that they were using his ideas for his game without his permission, and with any financial reimbursement.
So, he sued BTL and Mek Mi Rich's parent company, MMR Belize Productions. Late this evening, the case went back before Justice Courtney Abel for case management conference, and 7News was there to speak with the attorney from both sides about how far this matter has progressed. Here's what they told us about 2 hours ago:
Kareem Musa - Attorney For Curtis Swasey
"Today was set for the case management conference before the Honorable Justice Courtney Abel, but before we got into the actual management of the case, there was an application made by the second defendant, which is MMR for further disclosure. A request for further information under a particular rule of the Supreme Court civil procedure rules. That application is what took up the most part of this afternoon. It was heard. It was argued. And in the end, the learned Judge agreed with us that it was somewhat of a premature application, because we are only at the stage of pleadings. So, we have filed our statement of claim. We have amended it and now it is up to the second defendants to file their defense."
Naima Barrow - Attorney for MMR
"MMR made an application to the court to compel Mr. Swasey to provide more information about his claim. He has made allegations that MMR has use concepts and flowcharts and information belonging to him and because those terms are so broad, what MMR wanted was particularly what is your that you are claiming that has been used. The thinking of MMR is that the quicker you provide that information, the quicker we can show where ours came from. Our application was resisted by Mr. Swasey who has ask that he be allowed disclosure and witness statements and all the other orders to come. So, that how MMR feels, is that we are being kept in suspense as to exactly what the allegation is. But the court has assisted, by while not granting the application confining his case to one issue which is that the concept of buying lottery by text had to have been his and it's a hard one to prove, because we all know it's not something original to Belize."
Daniel Ortiz
"When we first reported this story we contacted the attorney and she suggested that the case was struck out against her client. Obviously, she is here in court. What was the confusion, if you are able to explain?"
Kareem Musa - Attorney For Curtis Swasey
"I'm not the one that gave you that information. I told you to check your own change, because that was misinformation. The case was never struck out and as you can see, by today all the parties are here. So, no, it was not struck out."
Naima Barrow - Attorney for MMR
"The court struck out the first claim, but allowed them time to amend their claim - to fix the defects in the original claim that was brought. There is a 6-year limitation. So, even if it was struck out, they could have gone and recommence another claim. To save the court's resources they permitted them to amend that claim, which they did do and that was what was filed and served. We had hope that Mr. Swasey had come to them first, because the matter could been put to bed with a simple conversation. They understand how he may be frustrated, but they do not, for any minute accept used it, because they have their contracts with their IT people outside of the country of Belize and so it's quite easy to prove where the information came from. So it was the hope that we can get the information more particularly identified, so we can deal with this matter quickly. Regrettably, the court has said that it will take a bit longer, but they intend to defend the matter."
The case goes back to court at a later date, and we will keep following.
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