[57] Gathercole enlarged upon the mechanics of this system with technical details of its operation. The intention of
the proposal was to improve on the voucher or scratch card system, where a subscriber purchases a voucher
containing a number that is fed into the network directly from the handset for the purpose of providing
additional airtime. He made the point though that whatever recharge method is used certain identical
information is transmitted within the system for the purpose of crediting the subscriber's account on the
network. Thus, he stated:
"Between the Tandem and various IN platforms there is a credit instruction method that is sent. Remember the IN's
account, the subscriber's account, sits on the IN platform itself and irrespective of whether you are doing a recharge
with a voucher or a credit card recharge or a bank ATM recharge you have three main fields that gets filed in this
message. The one is a transaction ID for each recharge. You have a unique transaction ID. The other one is the MSI's
(the telephone number). And the third main field is the amount of money that you actually want to put in."
He went on to explain the distinguishing feature of the credit card recharge:
"Yes, we do a credit validation at the bank and we are using a standard banking protocol called ISO 85/83. That is
what the ATM's use to talk and what banks use to talk. So I will fire off an 85/83 message to the bank. The bank will
validate the credit card. Has he got enough funds in his account; is it blacklisted or stolen, or whatever; and if the
bank is happy they send me a return message and says yes, the transaction is valid. Whatever the recharge
denomination that the subscriber chose during the VR (VRU) session, that amount of money gets put into the IN
account which is a totally separate, different platform."
[58] Cointel's involvement in the arrangement is now limited to the registration, Ecnet does the bank switch, and
Vodacom the actual recharge.
[59] Gathercole confirmed that the system has not changed since 1998.
[60] Gathercole went on to explain that the subscriber details name, ID number, address, etcetera are
maintained on the Cointel system and that such is not interrogated by the Vodacom system when uploading
the
Page 399 of [2009] 1 All SA 381 (T)
recharge, because the PIN issued by Cointel is sufficient. The transactional flow analysis in exhibit "B33" (at
"B90") explains the verification of the subscriber details under the Autocharge. After the subscriber has
chosen the credit option in response to the VRU prompts, provided the subscriber is registered and not
blocked for some reason, he will enter the PIN. This PIN will be validated against the associated MSISDN
(telephone number)/credit card relationship on the tandem computer system. If the PIN is correctly entered,
the application is provided with the credit card information to be used during this transaction. The tandem
application then determines the credit value allocated against the credit card. This then is the manner in which
the subscriber is identified and verified from the database within the tandem. Thus, the integers related to
remote identification and verification, as stipulated in claims 1, 14 and 15 of the patent in suit, are clearly
present in the Autocharge system.
[61] When Gathercole was asked whether integers (d) and (e) of claim 1, integer (d) of claim 14 and integers (e)
and (f ) of claim 15 were similarly present, ie the selective providing to the subscriber with an enabling code
which, when fed into the network, provides the subscriber with airtime credit which allows communication via
the network to a predetermined extent, he replied: "I understand that as the voucher, my lord." By contrast,
he regards the PIN used in the Autocharge as a password not as an enabling code. In this regard he
remarked:
"By feeding it into the network it does not automatically provide you with anything, there is a whole bunch of actions
that actually need to take place. If your lordship will remember that there was a credit threshold, if reached by
maximum credit threshold I am not going to even play you any form of recharge prompts, you might not even have
money in your account, your credit account so might be blocked, you might be suspended. By simply feeding in the
password does not guarantee you that you are going to get any form of money for that denomination" (sic).
[62] Exhibit "B103113" explains the voice response unit ("VRU") functional specification for electronic recharge. It
describes the actual format of the file or message sent by the VRU to the IN platform to credit the subscriber's
airtime account. Gathercole testified that the format of the data has not changed since inception, only the
method of delivery. One has to do then with communication by one computer with another (similar to the
transmission of email). And, as will be seen presently, the plaintiff relied on this aspect in support of his
contention that integers (e) and (f ) of claim 1 are disclosed. This communication, he asserted, constitutes the
enabling code in both the Autocharge and hybrid systems. Gathercole's rejoinder to that proposition has
assumed importance. He said:
"My lord as you can see there is no code in this thing at all. I mean it is purely a message transaction between one
computer element and another computer element. The same message is used for any type of recharge that we do,
whether it be a batch process which is the hybrid Autocharge, credit card, electronic ATM charge, voucher recharge, it
is the exact same message that is actually sent, every time."
[63] It became apparent during the crossexamination of Rathilall that the plaintiff would rely on a technical
document discovered by Vodacom entitled "Tecnomer Voucher and Credit Card Functional Specification" dated
9 October 2003 (exhibit "B145221") to bolster his contention that
Page 400 of [2009] 1 All SA 381 (T)
Vodacom introduced improvements to its recharging methods and systems drawing on his invention after the
priority date. He relied in particular on the following introductory paragraph:
"Vodacom is constantly striving to improve the existing recharge service. A huge step in achieving this is the local re