Matthew Vella
The entrepreneur who managed to ruin plans for One Productions to launch its mobile telephony service by winning a copyright battle on the brand name, was the publisher of the short-lived, Maltese soft-core porn magazine Playpen.
Gordon Debono, who told MaltaToday last week he intends offering a mobile telephony service, was the publisher of two lone issues of Playpen, a mediocre offering of glamour models in their birthday suits.
Debono’s first issue was published back in 2001, creating a minor hit and earning valuable inches in the print media and some TV coverage. It featured 16 photographs of no less than two Maltese girls.
A second issue came four years later in 2005, this time featuring a sheer 22 photographs of two girls, such was the dearth of talent available. Of its 65 pages, a mere four were dedicated to advertising.
Debono’s company One Telecom registered its trademark, an encircled ‘1’ with the word ‘Mobile’ following it, back in July 2008.
A month later, One Productions, which owns the company One Mobile Ltd, registered the trademark ‘ONE’ and company motto ‘we are one’, to cover telephony services.
Debono won a prohibitory injunction against One Productions, after a court said the brand name would cause confusion in the market, since the Debono’s trademark had registered before “and would cause economic damage” to Debono’s company.
But One Telecom itself does not even have a licence to operate a Mobile Virtual Network (MVNO) telephony service, nor does it have an ‘enabler’ agreement with a local network operator.
One Productions’ chief executive Michael Vella Haber said the company would do its utmost in getting what is theirs by right. “We have been a telecommunications company for ages and everyone identifies ‘ONE’ with One TV, Super One Radio, One News and other telecommunications services. If anything this other company will be confusing the market and riding on the goodwill of a company which wanted to branch its operations into mobile telephony.”
One Productions was awarded its MVNO licence last June and assigned its own number range after reaching an agreement with a Dutch enabler and a local network operator to use its infrastructure.
Any comments?
If you wish your comments to be published in our Letters pages please click button below. Please write a contact number and a postal address where you may be contacted.
