A COUPLE whose relationship ”turned toxic” after they were involved in the creation of a successful investment management business have been criticised by a High Court judge in London following a legal row.
Mathematician Martin Coward and his estranged wife Elena Ambrosiadou became embroiled in a High Court dispute over the ownership of intellectual property rights to software used in their IKOS investment business.
Mrs Justice Asplin ruled on Friday against Dr Coward following a trial at the High Court in London in March.
In a written ruling handed down at a hearing in London, the judge was critical of both parties and said their approach to giving evidence was tainted by their “obvious and deep animosity”.
The judge said she had not found either to be an “entirely satisfactory witness”.
“It was quite clear that they are both highly intelligent and astute individuals,” said Mrs Justice Asplin.
The judge said Dr Coward’s approach to giving evidence was at times “cavalier”, and she found him to be evasive when questioned about various agreements.
She added: “I found Ms Ambrosiadou to be to be extremely evasive and prone to making lengthy speeches in order to avoid answering questions which did not suit her, in what often appeared to be an attempt to obfuscate and confuse.”
Mrs Justice Asplin said Dr Coward was a mathematician and computer programmer who had graduated from Cambridge University.
She said Ambrosiadou was a chemical engineering graduate who had worked for British Petroleum.
Ambrosiadou and Dr Coward married in 1983 and founded IKOS in the early 1990s.
The judge heard that the venture was hugely successful and generated a ”fortune”.
But the couple became estranged after their relationship ”turned toxic”, the judge was told.
Ambrosiadou filed for divorce in 2009, said the judge.
Dr Coward resigned as chairman of IKOS in the same year – Ambrosiadou was chief executive.
The judge said in the proceedings before her, Dr Coward claimed that he wrote a substantial part of the software used by IKOS and that he owned the copyright on that software.
IKOS bosses contended that rights had either passed to IKOS or that Dr Coward had written software when an employee of IKOS.
Mrs Justice Asplin ruled against Dr Coward after analysing ownership and authorship issues at different periods of time.
“Our investors will be very pleased with this result because it secures the future of their investments with IKOS. In addition to confirming ownership of the IP, this ruling vindicates IKOS’ stringent defence of its lawful rights to its IP and strengthens the case for an overhaul of the European laws regarding protection of Intellectual Property,” Ambrosiadou said after the court case.
Cyprus Weekly