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Admasu Gebre (Eng.), an Ethiopian credited for the
innovation of a GPS based vehicle guidance system,
was sentenced to two weeks by a Federal First
Instance Court. He was, however, spared from serving
the full sentence and released after spending two
days in jail last week.
A judge at Kera First Instance Court sent Admasu to
jail on July 9, 2008, after finding him guilty of
violating its ruling that had suspended him from
screening a film tilted, “La’batwa” [to her
father], before a dispute with the director was
settled. The sentence was overruled by the President
of the Federal First Instance Courts Council on
Thursday, leading to his subsequent release.
The dispute over the film could itself be a subject
of another dramatic film dubbed, “based on a true
story,” and filled with moves and counter-moves by
the protagonists. The real life drama began the
moment Admasu agreed to produce a feature film in
collaboration with Biruk Anteneh, a film maker who
graduated from Santa Mexica College in the United
States.
A charge filed by Biruk at the Kera First Instance
claimed that his company, Biruk Films Plc, had
entered into an agreement with Admasu’s Navcom
Energy Plc, in July 2006, to produce a film with a
budget of 800,000 Br. They had agreed that Navcom
Energy would finance the film, while the proceeds
from the film would be shared at a ratio of 45pc for
Biruk and 55pc for Admasu, according to the charge.
Originally scheduled to be completed in June 2007,
both parties were committed to taking their case to
arbitration should there be a dispute, says a
contractual agreement submitted to the court by
Biruk’s attorney.
The two parties did fall out, although their case
landed in a court of law first in California, and
subsequently in Ethiopia, instead of going to
arbitration.
Biruk came to Addis Abeba in mid-June, and produced
a suspension from Kera First Instance Court, after
alleging that a film titled, “La’batwa” was
exactly the same film as he had directed and
produced under the title, “Mentiyochu,” which
literally translated means “twins.”
He succeeded in stopping Admasu’s company from
promoting the film on national TV, while Navcom
Energy was allowed by the court to screen it only on
its inaugural day, at Sebastopol Cinema.
Nevertheless, the film was shown to the public at
Cinema Empire twice in a day, violating the ruling
by the court not to do so until a decision had been
made on the case, according to the judge at Kera
court.
The court, therefore, found Admasu guilty on Tuesday
of violating its suspension, before it sent him to
jail for two weeks on the following day, July 8.
“I was not aware of the suspension up until I was
summoned to the court,” Admasu told Fortune,
after his release on Thursday.
His release was made possible after Desalegn Berhe,
president of the Federal First Instance Courts
Council, suspended the sentence from enforcement for
two weeks.
Biruk, who is fighting to establish his rights over
the film, was taken aback by the release of his
adversary.
“I’m surprised that Admasu was released a day after
he was sentenced for two weeks,” he told Fortune.
Desalegn argued that he acted within the law.
“The Civil Code, under provisions 333 and 334, gives
the President the authority to suspend rulings for
two weeks when it believes that the ruling would
cause irrevocable damage on the defendant,” Judge
Desalegn told Fortune.
In a twist of events, the case was referred to
Lideta First Instance Court, due to a potential
conflict of interest, as Biruk Film’s attorney,
Abera Anja, once served as a judge in the Kera
court.
Now judges at Lideta will have to pass a ruling as
to whether or not the case should be referred to
arbitration. The issue of the sentence on Admasu
remains unclosed for yet another review, with a
possible appeal being made by his lawyers. Should
the court uphold its verdict, it would be
unfortunate for the man who created one of the most
popular gadgets used by the global automobile
industry today.
Admasu first filed an application in order to own
intellectual property rights to the vehicles
guidance system (VGS) in 1979. He was awarded a
European patent 10 years later, under number
EP0011880. His innovation helped auto manufacturers
install dependable means of guiding the vehicle from
one point to any other destination desired by
drivers.
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