Ghanaian music producer Kwabena Ofei-Kwadey Nkrumah has won his intellectual property rights case against the Confederation of African Football [CAF].
A commercial court in Accra found Africa’s football governing body, guilty of failing to obtain legal permission before using Nkrumah’s beat of his music titled ” Okomfo Anokye” for promotional materials for the 2018 CAF awards.
Justice Emmanuel Loddoh who presided over the case, awarded damages of Ghana Cedis equivalent of USD250,000 and a legal cost of GHS 40,000 against CAF.
According to Spiky (born Kwabena Ofei-Kwadey Nkrumah), CAF’s act was total disrespect for his intellectual property rights, causing him to lose money from any licensing of his music for commercial use.
Before suing CAF, Spiky had called them out in 2029, for copyright infringement in a series of tweets. He noted that even though CAF had sent an email admitting to using his work without his consent and had apologised, they did not reply to him when he made a demand for compensation.
CAF, while admitting to failing to the offence, said the musical work was “available online for free download without any restrictions or conditions, to use for the artwork posted on CAF’s social media platforms.”
They also denied using the soundtrack for commercial purposes, citing that the CAF Awards was not a profit-making venture. They further explained that they deleted the work from their social media accounts and apologised to Spiky.
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