Narayana Murthy: On the offensive

Bangalore, Sept. 16: Software major Infosys Technologies Limited will move the Supreme Court against the ruling of the Intellectual Property Appellate Board, Chennai, that the company cannot hold a monopoly on the trademark ?Infosys?.

Talking to reporters on the sidelines of a Ficci conference on banking, chairman and chief mentor .R. Narayana Murthy said: ?We will fight it out. There is no problem. Since we are in a silent period ahead of our second quarter results in October, I will not elaborate.?

Company secretary V. Balakrishnan said Infosys will file a special leave petition in the apex court, seeking a stay on the board?s order. ?We learnt about the order early this week. Our lawyers have advised us to move the Supreme Court for staying the appellate board?s order. We will be doing it soon,? he said.

The appellate board gave the ruling in response to a petition filed by the Calcutta-based Jupiter Infosys Ltd, which sells computers, computer parts, accessories and other hardware items, for cancellation of the trademark ?Infosys? held by the software leader.

It also directed the registrar of trademarks, Chennai, to remove the registration of the trademark ?Infosys?.

Addressing the banking conference earlier, Narayana Murthy and Wipro chairman Azim Premji exhorted bankers to introduce technology to remain in the race with international banks in the global market.

Narayana Murthy said: ?If they do not, they will end up with worse problems.? Lamenting that Indian banks are bogged down by paperwork, he said: ?Customer focus needs to be improved and human resources needs retraining and redeployment. The customer goes through a plethora of problems and you should leverage the power of technology to solve them??

Premji said technology would continue to drive change in the banking industry, but industry ought to match it with changes in management systems and mindsets. ?It is also important to remember that for change to be successful, there must be corresponding changes in management systems and mindsets of the people to make it lasting and sustainable. Ultimately, we have to create an organisational culture that welcomes change or at least adapts to it in the quickest possible time.?