Software developer to take stand in copyright violation case
SOFTWARE developer Paul Lowe is scheduled to take the stand tomorrow in his defence against the billion-dollar lawsuit brought by Paymaster boss Audrey Marks for copyright violation.
Paymaster’s boss Audrey Marks is suing both GraceKennedy and Lowe for $1.7 billion for copyright infringement of her business plan and a computer program, which accommodates multiple-bill payments.
Marks is claiming that this infringement has caused her millions of dollars in losses.
Paymaster was the first to implement the bill-payment model using state-of-the-art technology back in 1997.
But Lowe, who is claiming ownership of the program, subsequently licensed it to GraceKennedy for US$20,000. GraceKennedy, in January 2000, then launched the Bill Express which competes directly with Paymaster.
Attorney Vincent Chen, in launching Lowe’s defence in the Supreme Court Friday, asserted strongly that his client had ownership rights to the controversial software as he was its author and owner of the source codes, which allow for updates of the base software.
The defence is also slated to call an expert witness.
