Firm ordered to deposit Sh50 million in a sanitary pad bins invention fight

The High Court has ordered a firm to deposit Sh50 million in a case involving the distribution of sanitary pads bins.

The money is supposed to be a guarantee to secure temporary orders for Rentokill Kenya Limited to distribute the bins, as it challenges earlier orders to stop the distribution.

The earlier orders not to distribute, just as the new ones to continue distributing, had come from Justice Mary Kasango.

They had been made on behalf of another firm, Sanitam Services East Africa Limited, which had alleged that Rentokill had infringed on its patent rights concerning the bins.

At the heart of the fight is a claim by Sanitam that it invented a foot operated litter and sanitary disposal bin in 1997. It then went ahead to register it under patent number AP773, one that is being infringed upon by Rentokill.

Sanitam got orders from the same court in 2017, requiring it to access Rentokill’s premises and confiscate the bins.

The court had ordered that Sanitam takes an inventory of the bins that violated its rights, and produce before the court an affidavit on how many they were.

“Stay of execution of the orders is granted pending the proposed appeal on condition that the first defendant (Rentokill) does deposit into court Sh50 million or provide a guarantee within seven days,” ruled Justice Kasango.

If the firm does not pay by close of December 27, Sanitam will be at liberty to execute the orders granted to it by the court.

Rentokil in Kenya is one of the 38 subsidiaries operating across the world under the parent multinational Rentokil Initial PLC.