Firm threatens legal action against NBL over intellectual property
By Moses Oyediran, Enugu
An engineering company, Evanpower Engineering Limited has threatened to drag the Nigerian Breweries to court over alleged usage of its intellectual property.
It gave the beer company 21 days to pay for the use of the intellectual property or face legal action.
The company in a petition by its counsel A.U.G Ojinta to the managing director of Nigeria Breweries Plc is demanding for the payment of N750 million and N3, 744, 153.15 as fees for the blueprint design and work done respectively at its Ama plant 9th Mile corner in Enugu state.
In the petition made available to journalists in Enugu, Ojinta alleged that NBL refused to pay the engineering company after using the blueprint it designed to solve a control system challenge at its Ama plant.
Ojinta stated that following the repair, Nigeria Breweries asked his client to apply for registration as vendor/contractor with the company, which she did and was registered on May 21, 2015, under the automation, instrumentation and control system category.
Thereafter, the counsel stated that his client was issued with a work permit and was instructed to work on revamping the access control system at the company’s Ama plant sometime in June, 2017.
“Our client was issued with work permit which covered the period June 4 to July 31, 2017 duly endorsed by the automation engineer, engineering manager, safety manager and brewery manager attesting to the fact that my client had been through with what my client was asked to do,” he stated
According to Ojinta, the brewery ditched his client when it had not paid for the services rendered, adding that the brewery had acknowledged the receipt and use of his client’s blueprint vide a letter of June 14, 2018.
“It is against the foregoing that our client has instructed us to demand and we demand that your company pay within 21 days from the receipt of this letter,” Ojinta added.
Contacted the Nigeria Brewery Plc however, denied any liability to the engineering firm, stressing that there was no record of any such transaction with the company.
Legal Manager Nigeria Brewery, Chidubem Aguguo, stated that there was no merit in the claim by the engineering company, stressing that the beer company rejects its claim in its entirety
He said: “We reiterate that at no time did we commit to pay your client for any document (whether quotation, blueprint or any other document whatsoever) submitted by it in respect of the reactivation of the access control system at our Ama brewery.
“Moreover, your client was duly paid for the work it did for us, including the materials it supplied for the project. Thus we are not in any way indebted to your client to any amount whatsoever. We found the claim to be without merit and do hereby reject same in its entirety.”
