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Group threatens to sue Ogun govt over alleged breach of intellectual property rights

Published

5 years ago

August 5, 2021

A group, Definition Studios Limited, has threatened to drag Ogun State government to court over allegation bordering on breach of intellectual property rights.

The group made the intention known through its lawyer, Pelumi Olajengbesi, in a letter addressed to the Secretary to the State Government.

He said around 2019, the team made a musical arrangement for the state anthem to be presented at the African Drum Festival in Abeokuta.

He said despite that his client did an orchestra score and created an artistically refined musical redefinition of the state anthem which was performed on all the days of the festival, the organisation was neither invited by the government nor compensated for their several performances.

“On the 26th day of April 2019, the team uploaded the footage of their performance on their official YouTube platform as part of their body of works: https://youtu.be/SIXVZpirqy4.

“However, on the 5th of February, 2021, the audio recording of the uploaded performance was extracted and used as theme song for the 45th-anniversary celebration message by the Ogun State Government without obtaining any prior authorisation and requisite consent from our client.

“On the 8th of February, 2021, same was posted on Ogun State government’s YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/GLpDQQVX7AA thereby converting it to its official use,” the lawyer said.

The lawyer said the act contravened “the Copyright Act CAP C28, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 2004.”

According to him, flowing from Paragraph 3.4 of the Act, the Ogun State government is in breach of the intellectual property rights of our client as guaranteed by extant laws.

He said all efforts made by his client to have the issue resolved with the state government were unsuccessful.

“In light of the above narrated facts, our client approached our firm for the purpose of intervening on its behalf and to seek redress for its intellectual property rights which has been flagrantly breached and disregarded by the Ogun State Government,” he said.

Pelumi, who demanded that the government paid the sum of N6 million for his client for unauthorised use of the team’s orchestra score by the government, also demanded that the sum of N1.5 million be paid annually for the next seven years as licence for the continued use of the team’s work.

The lawyer said if the state government failed to meet the organisation’s demands, he would not hesitate to invoke the full instrumentality of the law and exhaust all legal remedies available to enforce his client’s rights.