Once again my company suffers as a result of the publication of an article on the R60bn arms deal controversy because of references made to the involvement of "Thales" of France in constructing combat suites for three corvettes being built in Germany.

Please inform your readers that my company, Thales Advanced Engineering (TAE), based in Lonehill, Johannesburg, is not the Thales referred to in your front-page lead story of Thursday June 5.

TAE was formed in SA in 1987. We are suing the French arms company "Thales" formerly known as Thomson-CSF over the rights to the name "Thales" in France and the European Union (EU).

Thales (Thomson-CSF) has acknowledged that TAE has rights in SA in the name Thales.

However, it is not just the rights to the name that are cause for concern with us. Following published allegations that Thales , formerly Thomson-CSF, paid bribes to officials and politicians connected to arms deal, TAE's good reputation with current and future customers has been unjustifiably tarnished.

TAE will continue with trademark legal action against Thales (Thomson-CSF) in France and the EU via the European Trademark Commission, for the rights to the name. As an exporter to a number of countries in Europe, we have an international presence.

Our court application is based on the fact that Thales (ThomsonCSF) was fully aware of our use of and rights to the name.

We have had a website domain, www.thales.co.za for years.

Their subsidiary in SA, ADS, tried to buy 50% of TAE equity in March 2001.

We refused and were then offered à 100000 to change our name, which we declined.

In May 2001, Thomson-CSF proceeded worldwide to change its name to "Thales" and since then we have suffered from being mistakenly identified as the company involved with the arms deal.

With acknowledgements to Dr Bennie Coetze (joint MD Thales Advanced Engineering) and the Business Day.