Tel.com ownership under dispute

Johannesburg, 18 Jun 2001

ITWeb last week

reported

that the Tel.com conference and exhibition will go ahead, after Reed Exhibitions concluded a deal with the troubled Core Holdings to manage what has become a fixture on the local scene.

But the Computer Society of SA (CSSA) has issued a statement saying Core Holdings has never had any rights with respect to Tel.com.

The short, bland statement, signed by CSSA president Peter Aspinall and Electronic Industries Federation executive director Angus Grimbeck, says International Fairs and Exhibitions (IFE) was asked to manage the exhibition aspects of Tel.com in 1997. IFE was subsequently sold to Core Holdings by now-ousted owner Wolfgang Striebeck, but the CSSA says IFE never owned any rights to Tel.com, and neither does Core.

Aspinall says legal action has been instituted since the statement was issued and he has been advised not to comment on the matter. But Peter Davies, chairman of the Tel.com organising committee who has been involved in the event since its inception, says the IFE mandate has expired.

Davies says IFE was asked to manage the exhibition, which is run roughly every 18 months, for three consecutive events, and this was done in 1997, 1999 and 2000. "They would then have a chance to renegotiate it," he says.

He believes that IFE was also involved in the 1993 and 1995 events, which were run under the auspices of Telkom.

But he contends that IFE held no other rights, and agrees that Core was not in a position to conclude any contract with Reed.

Core Holdings COO Kathryn Fielding would not comment on the matter, saying only that it is sub judice and that as far as Core was concerned, the deal with Reed had not changed.

Reed Exhibitions MD Jo Melville says she is aware of the conflict, but that Reed had what it believed to be a bona fide contract to host Tel.com. "I have a simple arrangement with Core, and if there are conflicts within the industry it must be solved by the industry," she says.

Davies says the name Tel.com was never protected through registration as a trademark, but that the event would go ahead even if the name had to be changed.

"This is an industry event for the industry, by the industry, with surpluses being put back into the industry," he says. "It will absolutely go ahead."