A BUSINESSMAN is demanding the government pay him RM1.3 million over an alleged copyright infringement of the Madani vehicle plate number, reported the New Straits Times.
Ilham Madani Sdn Bhd director Hasan Azhari Hashim gave the Transport Ministry and the Road Transport Department seven days to pay the compensation before he filed a civil suit.
According to the letter of demand, Hasan claimed he was the rightful owner of the copyrighted work "Proposal Paper for the Creation of a Special Serial Vehicle Registration Number Madani 1 to Madani 9999 for Registration in Malaysia".
He claimed it has been lawfully registered in the Copyright Register under Section 26B of the Copyright Act.
Hasan claimed he sent a letter last year to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim proposing a collaboration for the sale of the numbers.
However, Hasan alleged that the proposal fell through after the government declined it in a series of letters exchanged since last year.
Last month, Transport Minister Anthony Loke said the bidding for the Madani special number plate series generated RM2.6 million in total.
The Road Transport Department (RTD) opened bids for Madani series special registration numbers with a minimum price of as low as RM100 from Oct 19-23 through the JPJeBid System.
RTD director-general Datuk Aedy Fadly Ramli said the sale proceeds would be used to realise the implementation of initiatives under the Transport Ministry such as the MyLESEN and Helmet Exchange programmes, FlySISWA, Socso payments to taxi drivers and various other initiatives. - November 5, 2024
