Telecommunications giant Vodacom is still prepared to negotiate with Please Call Me inventor Nkosana Makate on whether to compensate him a share of revenue that the service has generated. This, notes a Moneyweb report, emerged from Vodacom’s affidavit filed this week in response to Makate’s latest application at the Constitutional Court, which seeks clarity on last year's groundbreaking order that compelled the company to enter into in good faith compensation negotiations with him.

A fresh battle is heading to the Constitutional Court, as compensation negotiations between Makate and Vodacom have deadlocked. Makate has accused Vodacom of trying to renege on its obligation to pay him for the Please Call Me invention.

Vodacom’s chief legal and regulatory officer Nkateko Nyoka in court papers says the company has ‘at all times’ acted in good faith and sought to keep Makate at the negotiating table. Makate claims that Vodacom challenged the interpretation of reasonable compensation and delays in the company producing its records to determine the revenue that the innovation generated since its launch in 2001.

The company argues that it’s open to considering other compensation methodologies to arrive at a reasonable compensation amount as opposed to Makate’s demand for a share of Please Call Me revenue. It also argues that Makate’s interpretation of the Constitutional Court’s order is incorrect. ‘There’s nothing in the wording of the order which stipulates, or even suggests, that Vodacom is obliged to pay Mr Makate a share in the revenue, or that the precise share in the revenue is to be determined by the negotiations or, if necessary, by Vodacom’s CEO,’ Nyoka says in court papers.

Full Moneyweb report