Ask a LAWYER

 

 Barrister Yetunde Okulaja

The past weeks have been indeed hectic and of course no thanks to the continued partial closure of the Third Mainland Bridge due to the on-going repair works by the Federal Government. Yours sincerely have had to reschedule the resumption time in the office to reduce the stress in the already stressful Lagos since the bridge will not be opened inwards Mainland from the Island before 12 noon. With numerous appointments ranging from filing processes at the court registry, probate matters, land inspections at various locations, prisons visitation and an unparalleled pressure from Ayo Ola Mohammed for the submission of this write-up.

For the first time in years, my blood pressure was unimaginably high. I had several skip of heart beats accompanying Boss-lady ( as she is fondly called) pings and calls, wondering what the excuse will be this time around. It was the usual, “Yetunde, how far? The few times I managed to ignore her phone calls, she would switch to the Blackberry Messenger and then I would be left with no choice than to respond. Then I would crack my head for a seemingly cogent reason that she wouldn’t be able to fault and then in her usual characteristic manner, she would sigh and end up with “Oro e ti su mi, Olorun” (God knows, I am tired of your excuses) then I would promise that the write-up will be ready in no time that I am almost through with it whilst I haven’t started. I hope Ay is not reading this because I wanted this kept as a secret!

How could I have left out my car issues and those moments of having to stop at intervals to adjust my battery terminal?  I had a peculiar one last Saturday morning. I had made efforts as usual to check the terminal was well connected to the battery before leaving the house for the Medium Security Prison, Kirikiri. As I was running late, I managed to bring the car to a halt upon arriving at the security post by the entrance to the Kirikiri Prisons Road, for routine security checks hitting the drums placed at the side of the road to allow only a car per time. On being cleared to go, the car refused to start and knowing it must have been the usual battery issue, I quickly opened the bonnet and to hit the battery terminal but quite unfortunately, the car didn’t start this time.

After a couple of trials, one of the officers suggested that the car be pushed to the side of the road as it was disturbing their operations. On hearing that, I tried all I could to get the car started because I couldn’t imagine them pushing a whole “The Law’s” car on that ever busy road. Trust me, the moment I managed starting the car, I drove off keeping a straight face and pretending not to hear the comments by those officers and other road users particularly the Okada riders as it was close to a motor park. My consolation lies in the fact that the programme at the Meduim Prison turned out a success.

I welcome you to the maiden edition of the Ask A Lawyer Corner, specifically put-up for legal-related issues from stories making the rounds in the news and on the various social media platforms. Yours sincerely, will be on hand to dissect those issues in simple everyday English language so that we can all appreciate the various provisions of the Law where applicable while dispensing with the usual legal jargon Lawyers are synonymous with. Therefore, we shall be x-raying issues with the intent of getting us armed with a good knowledge of the Law in a given area to aid our understanding of the issue. In effect, we have brought the Law Office closer and so you can therefore take the full advantage by asking us questions on issues previously discussed in this column and other areas you may be seeking clarification.

By now, you would have read a story in the media that a popular high life musician, Flavour Nabania an artiste with 2nite Entertainment has been dragged to court over an alleged infringement of copyright belonging to the duo of Wutah Kobby and Wutah PV that make up the defunct Wutah group based in Ghana. Their claim is that Flavour’s song titled “Kwarika” released in 2011 had the chorus, rhythm, rhyme and opening Saxophone lifted from their hit song titled “Kotosa” released in 2008.

Now you may be wondering, should the song Kwarika qualify for an infringement of intellectual copyrights being that it was not the exact song but what was similar in tunes and beats that was alleged to have been copied and also that the said song by Wutah was released in Ghana and not in Nigeria territory since 2008.

The answer to the above is a clear Yes.  The alleged use of instrumentals and/or lyrics as in the case of Flavour as stated by Wutah is an infringement of their copyright. More so, Ghana where the song by Wutah was released as well as Nigeria is a signatory to the Berne Convention Treaty signed by many countries of the world.

What then is Copyright? Simply put, Copyright is the legal protection given to the owner of an original work to prevent others from using such published works. The work could literary, scientific or artistic in nature.  The protection under the Copyright Act can be explained in two ways. Firstly, the right of the owner to give rights to other persons or bodies other than himself to use his works or part of his works for a life time or a particular period of time.

Secondly, it is the right of control of reproduction of work by the original owner and the right to receive remuneration for the reproduction of such work. Therefore, whenever a published work is used without the permission of the original owner, such person or body has violated the copyright or the intellectual right of another and such act is called in infringement.  The owner of the published work (copyright) is the aggrieved person here because he has suffered a loss from the use of his creative efforts by another person for commercial gains.

Also, a copyright need not be registered to enjoy legal protection. Once there is proof that a published work is original in nature and has not been copied from anywhere before, such a work will automatically enjoy legal protection under the relevant Copyright Laws and such a person can sue anybody who infringes on such intellectual property rights.

The remedies open to a person who clams his rights have been infringed are in two folds: Civil and Criminal. The civil remedies include injunctive order against the infringement, damages and restitution of unjust enrichment whilst in criminal cases, the culprit may be found guilty and therefore fined or sentenced.

The duration of Copyright is throughout the life time of the owner and seventy years after the end of the year in which the owner dies.

Barrister Yetunde Okulaja is a Practicing Lawyer and a businesswoman. She is the Lead Consultant at LEGAL AFICONADOS; (Attorneys-at-Law) a Lagos based Law office with bias for Intellectual property, Real Estate, Criminal and Commercial Law.

E-mail - legalaficionado@yahoo.com

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