A legal battle has ensued between OLX and PakWheels over copyright infringement and intellectual property theft, as reported by Reuters.
OLX has claimed that the biggest automobile classified site of the country has been spamming OLX users and stealing user data and vehicle advertisements for the peer to peer marketplace. The evidence presented by OLX’s lawyers in the court exhibits OLX watermark appearing on PakWheel’s website indicating trademark violation and copyright infringement. In addition to that, OLX has alleged that PakWheels has been accessing their servers through automated means to extract, copy and reproduce data without any authorization and permission.
OLX Regional Head of Middle East, North Africa & Pakistan Bilal Bajwa is hoping that the courts will put a prohibition on such practices. He said, “This case is about OLX fighting to protect the privacy of our users as well as our significant investment in marketing”.
PakWheels, however, has denied all the allegations. They believe the case indicates the desperation of OLX to distract competitors and use their monetary position to hurt local startups. They are contending that no content was stolen from the online marketplace and it is a common trend amongst users to post the same advertisements on multiple websites.
According to the Chief Executive of PakWheels, Raza Saeed, the platform is an established local brand. He said, “Their primary argument is that PakWheels is using the OLX logo to further our brand, which is ridiculous because two competitors will never use each other´s logo”.
How will this impact local startup industry to attract foreign investment?
The court ruling has yet to come, and what is more interesting is that industry executives are hoping that the ruling will have a way for the interpretation of local laws on copyright, intellectual property, and consumer protection. The decision could become an archetype for the future providing clarity to companies and consumers about the laws. Last September, a similar battle was seen between Rozee.pk and RightJobs.pk when a local court issued a provisional order against the latter, prohibiting it from copying and posting job advertisements published on the plaintiff’s platform.
Furkan Ali, a lawyer who is not involved in the case, believes, “If the principle that stealing listings off websites comes out of this case, it would be the first time a judicial forum would be driving home that principal.”
Information Technology is Pakistan’s second largest export worth $2.8 billion as recorded in the last fiscal year. According to the growth indicators, the Ministry of Finance, P@SHA, and industry experts are forecasting it to double in the coming four years. Over 4,000 local technology startups have created employment opportunities for more than 150,000 people. In the past few years, Pakistan has also welcomed the presence of foreign companies to operate in the country such as Careem, Uber, Afiniti, Skyelectic, etc. However, foreign companies are still slow to enter the Pakistani market, owing to the vague cyber laws.
Referring to the legal battle between OLX & PakWheels, Shehryar Hadri, Secretary General of P@SHA shares, “It´s not going to open the floodgates of investment overnight, but it´s going to become a benchmark other companies can use. It will definitely make other companies more comfortable.”
Chief Executive of DPL, an IT services company, Syed Ahmed also believes, “The case is a product of increasing competition in a growing market and could have a positive affect and so move Pakistan closer to secure foreign IT investment.”
Pakistan Board of Investment (BoI) has been working rigorously to bring foreign investors to Pakistan. Chairman BoI, Naeem Zamindar wants the local technology sector to grow and has identified that Pakistan is very proactive to deal with issues pertaining to intellectual property and copyright infringements. He acknowledged, “This is an area we are committed to improving. Global tech giants remaining concerned by a negative image problem of Pakistan, is now outdated.”
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