Balcatta based technology company ERG Group has reached an agreement with Hong Kong based Octopus Cards Ltd to resolve an ownership disagreement between the two companies.
The disagreement stemmed from the two companies' joint delivery of Hong Kong's automatic fare collection system, similar to Perth's "SmartRider", in 1997.
A statement released by ERG this morning says that the company has acknowledged that OCL's Octopus Clearing House System does not infringe ERG's intellectual property rights, and retracts its previous claims that it did.
"We anticipate that, going forward, there may be opportunities for the two companies to cooperate on fare collection projects," the company stated.
The full press release is pasted below:
ERG has reached agreement with Octopus Cards Ltd (HK) to amicably resolve a historical disagreement regarding the ownership of the technology originating from their joint delivery of the Hong Kong automatic fare collection system in 1997.
As a result of this agreement both parties will, in the future, be free to independently offer their respective systems to the market. Neither party will challenge the other party's ownership of their technology.
ERG acknowledges that OCL's Octopus Clearing House System ("OCHS") does not infringe ERG's intellectual property rights. ERG retracts any claims it has made to the effect that the OCHS constituted an infringement of those rights.
We anticipate that, going forward, there may be opportunities for the two companies to cooperate on fare collection projects. The combined experience of the two companies would offer enormous benefits to potential customers.
We believe the agreement represents a positive outcome for both companies and their shareholders.
