THE REPUBLIC OF UGANDA
IN THE HIGH COURT OF UGANDA AT KAMPALA
COMMERCIAL DIVISION
HCT – 00 – CC- CS - 395 - 2009
BYTE LEGION TECHNOLOGIES ………………………………..……PLAINTIFF
VERSUS
MTN (UGANDA) LTD. ……………………………………………… DEFENDANT
BEFORE:
THE HON. JUSTICE GEOFFREY KIRYABWIRE
Judgment
The plaintiff company a software developer sued defendant Telecommunications
Company for breach of confidence and unjust enrichment regarding a proposed SMS
based brokerage service.
The case for the plaintiff is that in July 2007, the Plaintiff’s Managing Director, Mr.
Collins Musinguzi, approached employees in the Marketing Department of the Defendant
Company with a proposal for the development of an SMS brokerage content provision
system.
Over the next few months, the Plaintiff and Defendant corresponded regarding the
possibility of working together to develop the SMS brokerage content provision system.
The defendant assured the plaintiff that they were willing to do business with him and
correspondence between the parties began. The plaintiff then at the request of the
defendant spent Shs 2,000,000/= for the installation of a leased line and SMPTP Port to
further their relationship. In September 2008 the plaintiff awaited a formal agreement
with the defendant and was assured that all he had to do was wait and be patient.
However in 2009 the defendant launched another but similar product called Google SMS
Trader a product said to have technical specifications as the plaintiff’s proposed SMS
based brokerage content provision system.
It is the case for the plaintiff that the defendant used confidential information of the
plaintiff relating to this product and went on to launch Google SMS Trader with the same
information without informing the plaintiff of its intentions to do so.
The case for the defendant is that they had no formal contract with the plaintiff regarding
the proposal for the development of an SMS based brokerage content provision system.
Furthermore the defendant did not authorise its employees or officials to deal with