Court documents obtained by ChannelNews and SmartHouse claim that in 1996 Telstra Ventures invested $200,000 into the Smart Company and were also keen to invest in Clipsal in an effort to get their foot in the door in what were early days for home automation development. Now they are caught up in allegations of theft and skulduggary.
However the investment went pear shaped with both the Smart Company (Smart) and Clipsal now suing each other. At the time Clipsal was owned by Gerard Industries and close friend of John Howard, Robert Gerard and his family.
The documents have revealed that in May 1995 Clipsal and Smart entered into an agreement which was based on joint collaboration between Smart and Clipsal for the development of componentry Interface to enable the direct connection of the Smart System technology and the C-Bus system without having to use a PC interface. The primary objective was the development of C-Bus using Smart System-developed technology.
Clipsal claim that at the time they negotiated in good faith for the Smart technology which was rebranded as Clipsal C-Bus. In a defence documents lodged with the Federal Court both parties set up a Supply Agreement in respect of all trade secrets, proprietary know how and all other information communicated in confidence. This document is set to play a key part in the upcoming case before Justice Lander in the Federal Court in Adelaide.
Under this agreement Smart supplied the Smart System to Clipsal which they then re-branded as Minder and later Home Minder both were sold as Clipsal products. They also sold the Smart System with C-Bus as a packaged Clipsal product, marketed by Clipsal as "the C?Bus/Minder system" and/or the "Clipsal Minder Home Automation" solution and/or "Clipsal-the world's smartest housekeeper".
