{"id":25126,"date":"2012-10-25T23:49:20","date_gmt":"2012-10-25T21:49:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=25126"},"modified":"2012-10-25T23:51:09","modified_gmt":"2012-10-25T21:51:09","slug":"holdsworth-ready-to-sacrifice-all-in-reunert-battle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/it-services\/25126\/holdsworth-ready-to-sacrifice-all-in-reunert-battle\/","title":{"rendered":"Holdsworth ready to sacrifice all in Reunert battle"},"content":{"rendered":"

John Holdsworth<\/a>, founder and chief executive of start-up\u00a0AppChat<\/a>, says he is ready to deplete his financial resources in a legal battle with former employer, Reunert, and will petition the Supreme Court of Appeal in Bloemfontein after his latest appeal was denied.<\/p>\n

In August, the high court in Pretoria ruled in favour of Holdsworth\u2019s former employer,\u00a0Nashua ECN<\/a>, a subsidiarty of JSE-listed Reunert, finding that he had breached his restraint of trade while also soliciting his former colleagues to work for AppChat.<\/p>\n

Holdsworth said that he would appeal the judgement, citing numerous factual errors; however, that appeal was denied earlier this week by high court judge, Selby Baqwa.<\/p>\n

Holdsworth was the founder and CEO of ECN, a provider of IP-based next generation network services. He sold ECN to\u00a0Reunert<\/a> in July 2011.<\/p>\n

AppChat is a mobile telecom start-up that aims to \u201csignificantly reduce mobile tariffs and increase call quality in South Africa\u201d.<\/p>\n

While Holdsworth also maintains that he had no idea that Nashua ECN was developing a VoIP application for mobile phones, Judge Baqwa ruled otherwise.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have a profound sense of injustice. Everybody knows that ECN is a fixed voice provider. Their so-called mobile VoIP application is a standing joke in the industry; unfortunately as the victim of that sick joke I don\u2019t find it very funny,\u201d Holdsworth told BusinessTech.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is very frustrating to sit in court and listen to untruths or half-truths presented as facts, but even worse when the judge believes those untruths and half-truths and bases his entire judgment on them,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Holdsworth, who has already employed more than a dozen people to work at AppChat, and is eyeing a launch date of February 2013 for the start-up, said he has questioned whether to cut his losses and shut AppChat, down making fifteen staff redundant in the process.<\/p>\n

\u201cOr do I deplete all my financial resources fighting a corporate giant with unlimited resources and a determination to win at all costs?”<\/p>\n

\u201cI have decided to continue fighting and will petition the Supreme Court of Appeal in Bloemfontein. Sometimes you just have to fight for what is right and the only way to deal with injustice is to try and set it right,\u201d Holdsworth said.<\/p>\n

He stressed that \u201cevery day is a struggle to survive for start-up companies, and most fail for a variety of reasons. One of the main reasons why start-up companies fail is due to a lack of uniqueness and originality\u201d.<\/p>\n

The entrepreneur pointed out that most start-ups were imitations or slight variations of existing companies.<\/p>\n

\u201cDerivative ideas are easy to adopt, but they are not the best if you want to be successful.\u00a0 The most successful start-up companies launch products and services that are totally novel, unique and original. AppChat\u2019s vision is to completely reinvent how converged fixed and mobile services are delivered, not only in South Africa, but the world,\u201d Holdsworth said.<\/p>\n

He continued, saying that Reunert was wrong when it accused AppChat of copying its ideas and stealing its intellectual property.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have no intention of copying Reunert\u2019s ideas or stealing their intellectual property. Reunert\u2019s so-called mobile VoIP application (which is yet to see the light of day) is neither novel, unique nor original.\u00a0 Indeed there are many such mobile VoIP products in South Africa and the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

Holdsworth lamented \u00a0having spent the past six months responding to Reunert\u2019s affidavits, leaving little time for anything else.<\/p>\n

“AppChat\u2019s product development and launch plans have been severely impacted.\u00a0 My reputation has been damaged by Reunert\u2019s untrue allegations and AppChat has been placed in a very difficult if not impossible position,” he said.<\/p>\n

“But having said that, I am not cynical or bitter, and believe that at the end of the day the checks and balances in the legal system will kick in and this judgment will be reversed,” he said.<\/p>\n

“The challenge, though, is to take whatever actions are necessary in the interim without allowing negativity or despondency to take hold. On that note, it is business as usual at AppChat, watch this space,” Holdsworth said.<\/p>\n

Related article<\/strong><\/p>\n

AppChat\u2019s Holdsworth: \u201cCowboys don\u2019t cry\u201d<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Holdsworth to appeal AppChat ruling<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

AppChat to forge ahead?<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Reunert vs. Holdsworth: High court rules<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

AppChat, Reunert court date postponed<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Holdsworth accuses Reunert of delaying tactics<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

AppChat MVNO agreement close: Holdsworth<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Reunert trying to shut AppChat down: John Holdsworth<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cBusiness as usual\u201d at AppChat amid court battle<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

AppChat’s John Holdsworth says he is ready to deplete his financial resources in a legal battle with former employer, Reunert, and will petition the Supreme Court of Appeal in Bloemfontein.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":25141,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[1878,26,66,2433,555],"class_list":["post-25126","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-it-services","tag-appchat","tag-headline","tag-john-holdsworth","tag-nashua-ecn","tag-reunert"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25126","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25126"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25126\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25144,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25126\/revisions\/25144"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25141"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25126"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25126"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25126"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}