Virtual Map was denied leave to appeal an earlier High Court decision that stopped the company from using a series of maps based on schematics from the SLA.

The earlier ruling, which came last month, forced the company to remove several maps from its popular website. The SLA said they violated the government agency's copyright.

In a private hearing yesterday, Justice Tan Lee Meng found insufficient grounds to grant leave for an appeal, which may have allowed Virtual Map to request a stay of the High Court ruling and use the maps until the case concludes.

The company plans to take the case to the Court of Appeal. It has seven days to do so.

Yesterday's decision was the latest blow to Virtual Map, which had operated popular website Streetdirectory.com. The portal let users search for roads, hotels and restaurants. It also sells maps to businesses to use on their websites.

Between 1999 and 2004, the SLA granted Virtual Map a licence to use its data to produce online maps. It ended this in July 2004.

The SLA said it had pulled the plug because Virtual Map was going after numerous businesses to claim 'exorbitant sums' for using its maps. It sued Virtual Map when the latter continued offering its online maps after the deal was off.

Virtual Map lost the lawsuit in a district court and was ordered to stop using the infringing materials. It appealed to the High Court but lost.

Early this month, Virtual Map took down its website. It later put the website back online but removed the infringing maps.

When contacted yesterday, Virtual Map managing director Firdhaus Akber said the company would definitely appeal to the Court of Appeal.

He said he was hoping to put some of the maps back online, as users had been calling up to ask when they could be accessed again.

An SLA spokesman said yesterday that it would not hesitate to take necessary action to ensure the court judgment was complied with.