Financial Times

Pure logic or just in time!
Logica Group Pvt. Ltd, a local IT company, last Tuesday had planned a big show to launch a new software package. Apart from a presentation on the software with the Prime Minister in attendance, the event was more to do with dancing, a laser show and a drum sequence.

There was a hitch however. A Sri Lankan firm - local agents for a British company with the same trade name Logica - had just in time alerted the public through a newspaper notice that it owned the trademarks rights to the software named "Logica". It went further in securing a court injunction against the company.

Dr Harsha Cabraal, lawyer for Logica CMG in the UK and its local agents, Just in Time, said they filed papers in court on Monday and obtained an enjoining order on Tuesday from the Commercial High Court restraining the defendants from using the trademark and logo and going ahead with the launch. The case will be called again on June 8.

According to reporters covering the event, the court verdict was delivered to the Colombo Plaza hotel a few minutes before organizers were preparing to hold a press conference, forcing them to call off the launch. The logo of the British company, according to the newspaper notice, is identical to that of the Logica group as seen on its letterhead.

"They did an unfair thing," said Logica group company chairman Kalpa Palliyaguruge adding that, "instead of issuing the newspaper notice and taking court action earlier, they (complainants) took these steps on the day of the launch."

He declined to discuss the issue further since it was now before the courts. Faced with over-flowing food, alcohol and a dancing troupe, the Logica group went ahead with the evening's entertainment for the guests who had come - sans however the launch!

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