A letter of demand has been sent to the transport ministry and the Road Transport Department (JPJ) regarding alleged copyright infringement pertaining to the unique "MADANI" vehicle number plates that were put up for auction last month, NST has reported.
Hasan Azhari Hashim, the program director of Ilham Madani Sdn Bhd, a fundraising consulting firm, is suing the two government agencies for RM 1.3 million for allegedly violating and abusing his copyrights and intellectual property rights. According to the letter, if the ministry and JPJ don't pay the amount within seven days, they may be subject to legal action.
In the letter, the businessman asserted that he was the legitimate 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," and that Section 26B of the Copyright Act had allowed the work to be legally registered in the copyright register.
“Should you fail, neglect or refuse to make full payment of the amount, our client has instructed us to take immediate legal action against you to recover the quantum without further notice or reference to you,” the letter read.
It has also been stated in the letter of demand that Hasan proposed to Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim in February of last year to collaborate on the sale of special number plates that run from MADANI 1 to 9999 based on copyright.
JPJ however, responded in April of the same year by declaring that it would not be issuing number plates in the "MADANI" series due to regulations that disallow the issuance of special registration numbers to private companies, NGOs or any other entities.
In August and October of 2023, the claimant presented the prime minister with additional proposals, which were referred to the transport ministry. However, he was informed that the JPJ was already authorized to issue the special number plates under the existing provisions
For the record, the MADANI plate was announced last month, and bidding for the numbers in the series took place from October 19 to 23, generating a total revenue of RM2,623,329 when bidding ended on October 23, with 'MADANI 6' receiving the highest bid of RM68,888.