'Knott-Craig stole our ideas'

Lihle Z Mtshali, Simpiwe Piliso and Rob Rose report on a family affair that threatens to tarnish the legacy of one of SA's top businessmen and is said to have caused a suicide

An entrepreneur who claims to have invented Vodacom's money-spinner, Look4Me, says that former CEO Alan Knott-Craig snr stole his invention - and passed it on to his son, Alan jnr.

Internal Vodacom documents in the possession of the Sunday Times show that Knott-Craig snr then went out of his way to spend millions of Vodacom's money on promoting the idea through Knott-Craig jnr's company, Cellfind.

Stephen Rodgers, who patented the country's first cellphone tracking service in 2002, claims that, when confronted, Knott-Craig snr was unrepentant. Rodgers said Knott-Craig snr said he had "investigated (the patent) for loopholes and was quite happy to go to court and fight us. He also told my MD that we should go ahead and sue them."

The distraught entrepreneur and investors in his company, Gridwatch, had already ploughed R12-million into the business, which soon collapsed. Gridwatch's tracking system - known as Multi-Alert - was used by Vodacom in 2003, signing up over 3000 subscribers within months.

"We were well on our way until Vodacom first approached us (in 2003) for an exclusive partnership with them, made us spend millions and then stole our invention," said Rodgers.

Within months, however, a similar product, known as Look4Me and developed by Cellfind, arrived on the shelves of Vodashops.

Rodgers said it was "suspicious".

"Where did Knott-Craig jnr get the idea from? It was already in his father's stores when they stole the concept and replaced it with Look4Me."

Describing the events that occurred after his managing director had met with Knott-Craig snr, Rodgers said: "I ended up bankrupt ... with nothing. I was finished. The investors pulled out because everyone was too afraid to waste millions more in a fight with this corporate giant."

One of Gridwatch's investors, Greg Blank, a former investment guru said: "Did Vodacom steal our idea? Absolutely they did. Steve's concept was totally the foundation of Look4Me, and a few months later that's exactly what was launched through Vodacom."

Blank, now a consultant and racehorse owner, says he decided not to fight Vodacom because "you're not going to win in a court case against a company that makes R7-billion in profit".

Though Rodgers says his projections showed he could have made R488-million from the project with Vodacom, he says he could not afford a costly legal battle.

"How does an ordinary man in the street take on a giant like Vodacom? How does the little guy just take on a guy like Knott-Craig when he says 'Sue me.' He has tens of millions to fight us."

However, Vodacom spokesman Richard Boorman denies that the company stole Rodgers's idea, saying Cellfind's Look4Me was a location-based product that originated in the UK. "It did not replace any existing product," said Boorman.

He said the UK version allegedly duplicated by Cellfind was known as Mapamobile and had been operational since July 2003.

But Rodgers says he was asked by Vodacom's attorneys to hand over his product's technical specifications.

"We were in the process of drawing up the heads of agreement with Vodacom, and it was around that time when we were asked by their lawyers in a meeting to hand over the patent documents and the technical specifications. We agreed in good faith, as we were already trading in Vodacom stores. We didn't suspect anything."

In an e-mail to Rodgers dated June 30 2003, Vodacom's then executive head of sales, Michael Allschwang, said: "I am very positive about the product's possibilities. Once the logistics have been finalised, I will provide you with a draft copy of heads of agreement outlining our business relationship, which I have incidentally already begun working on."

Rodgers claims Vodacom then went quiet, and a few months later Multi-Alert was simply removed from the shelves of all Vodashops and replaced with Look4Me.

Look4Me, a service with overwhelming similarities to Multi-Alert, was launched by Cellfind in February 2004.

"When we first launched Multi-Alert, Cellfind was not even in existence," said Rodgers.

Cellfind opened for business in September 2003, a year after Rodgers patented his product.

Vodacom even marketed Multi-Alert.

An article in Vodacom's 2002 Vodaworld magazine described Gridwatch's breakthrough "safety and emergency support aid" product.

It said members registered to Gridwatch's service could set up three speed-call numbers on their handset and "up to five messages will be sent to these numbers if a threatening situation occurs. It's inexpensive, relies on people you've chosen and requires no more technology than your cellphone and its SMS function."

Although Rodgers has not sued Vodacom, a list of other entrepreneurs have accused Knott-Craig snr of hijacking their inventions - and lodged damages claims.

One such company is NumberSecure, founded by Kevin Jenkins and Dieter Sauerbier, who committed suicide in 2005, blaming Vodacom. His note read: "Vodacom killed me. In the end I merely pulled the trigger."

NumberSecure won a private arbitration against Vodacom in July last year for stealing its product, which would store a person's cellphone number so that if the phone were lost or stolen, the contact number would not disappear as well.

NumberSecure claims Vodacom stole the idea and launched its own similar product - Back-It-Up.

Though NumberSecure claimed R102-million in 2006, the amount has since grown to R200-million with interest and legal costs.

Vodacom will appeal against the ruling in March but has not told shareholders that it lost the initial case.

Though Boorman said "the issue has been disclosed to the board (and) the case has not been concluded yet", details have not been disclosed to shareholders, who include scores of black shareholders from the R7.5-billion YeboYethu empowerment scheme.

"The arbitration process in this case is subject to a confidentiality agreement, and we cannot comment other than to say that the case has not yet been concluded," said Boorman.

Both Knott-Craig snr and Knott-Craig jnr ignored several requests for comment.