David and Goliath: Dept of Agric-supported counterfeiters messing with wrong lady

A story of exposing skullduggery of the worst kind – where a patented and design protected product owned by a small business has been counterfeited by tenderpreneurs and knowingly purchased by the South African State. But in Groenvoer's co-owner Cathy Khoury-Prinsloo, the crooks are messing with the wrong person. She hired a patent lawyer and is determined to see the matter through to its ultimate conclusion. Having been a former colleague of hers, from what I know of Cathy, there will only be one winner in this scrap. And it won't be the public servants and the crooked cohorts they are protecting. – Alec Hogg.State capture and corruption at state entities like Eskom have garnered the headlines, but graft has infected many corners of the state's fabric. This is underscored in this BizNews interview with Cathy Khoury-Prinsloo, an entrepreneur in the agriculture sector. .Khoury-Prinsloo tells BizNews founder and former colleague Alec Hogg how her patented product was stolen by individuals looking to score a government department contract. And, although there is overwhelming evidence of intellectual property theft and other contract-related skullduggery, officials have failed to 'fess up and make good on the wrongs'..___STEADY_PAYWALL___.Khoury-Prinsloo has been battling for justice through lawyers, she tells Hogg..To put the story into context, Groenvoer's co-owner Khoury-Prinsloo tells how she took over the family business, with her mother, sister and some staff, in 2002 after her father died..It's an animal seed operation, "which is a tough market to be in… it is a very competitive market", she says.."In 2011, I read something that made me realise there was a concept that didn't exist in South Africa that would really benefit any horse owner, any cattle owner, anybody with sheep and goats.."It was an email from an American, overseas company… regarding savings you could make on your fodder by using a round bale feeder.".Together with a mechanical engineer partner, Groenvoer explored how to apply this in the South African context — "something you could use with minimal labour" to load the roll. "Something that would save grass, and naturally money.".The SA Grass Roll Saver, for feeding horses and cattle, was patented and design-protected. There is also another, lower model for sheep and goats..They called it the South African Grass Roll Saver because they are patriotic and knew it was exportable, Khoury-Prinsloo told Hogg..In 2017, in the middle of a drought, Groenvoer had a windfall of grass rolls and "paid it forward" by donating about 265 rolls to the Gauteng Department of Agriculture..The officials said they were interested in the SA Grass Roll Saver, but nothing came of a meeting and other correspondence with them, says Khoury-Prinsloo.."We got requests for quotes… we didn't get an order.".To her "huge shock, stress and disappointment", Khoury-Prinsloo found counterfeit Savers, which were sold on to the Department of Agriculture, when they later went to visit Suikerbosrand Nature Reserve for a break. .A lawyer advised Groenvoer to solve the matter amicably, so Khoury-Prinsloo took steps to settle the dispute out of court..Groenvoer subsequently got a request for another quote for 12 Savers for Suikerbosrand Nature Reserve. But the request was irregular and looked like it was inviting people to produce a counterfeit, says Khoury-Prinsloo..A lawyer sent a note to the nature reserve contact, who reassured them that she wanted the genuine product. In the meantime an official "admitted" the department had counterfeit, substandard products – for example the counterfeit products were rusting and dangerous, with sharp edges..Groenvoer delegates met with several Department of Agriculture officials and were stonewalled as it was clear they were "protecting someone close to the department"..After approaching Noseweek to get an investigative journalist to follow up, Khoury-Prinsloo received a letter saying that the department was no longer interested in buying the products.."They are protecting the supplier, without a doubt," says Khoury-Prinsloo.

David and Goliath: Dept of Agric-supported counterfeiters messing with wrong lady

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