…Over Single Window Theft
After an uninteresting game of hide and seek, court bailiffs have finally served Ghana Link Network Service, Customs UNI-PASS International Agency and Work Smart Limited with writs over a reported single window software theft.
The defendants are to appear in court over charges bothering on intellectual property theft.
The plaintiff, West Blue Consult, is seeking perpetual injunction to prevent the defendants and their agents from operating the single window software they are accused to have cloned from West Blue.
Specifically the software programmes the defendants are accused to have plagiarized are the One view, Trade Hub and PAARS systems.
The plaintiff is also asking for damages against defendants for infringing its copyright in PAARS by cloning the software without authorization from the owners.
West Blue became aware in July 2018, that Ghana Link had copied its Pre-Arrival Assessment Reporting System (PAARS) and Risk Management System- modules of the Ghana Single Window System.
It became more evident when stakeholders at the port including members of the Ghana Institute of Freight Forwarders (GIFF) raised the alarm when UNI-PASS demonstrated its supposedly new systems to them.
The stakeholders realized that the existing single window system belonging to the government of Ghana but being operated by West Blue is the same system that UNI-PASS has copied and being demonstrated to them as new system.
The features, designs and operations of the UNI-PASS’s system is said to be the same as the existing system. The website of the new system also has posters and artworks of the “achievement of paperless ports so far…” which was designed in early 2018 based on the works of the existing operators.
The social Media Link on the supposed new system redirects to West Blue’s social media handle.
The suspected cloned system is what has been sold back to the government of Ghana for $180 million through an intriguing 10-year sole sourced deal spearheaded by the Ministry of Trade.
