Legendary Nigerian musician Onyeka Onwenu has drawn first blood in her copyrights infringement suit against IROKING Limited, a music and movie distributor. A Federal High Court sitting in Lagos on Friday dismissed a preliminary objection filed by IROKING challenging its jurisdiction over the case.
After listening to the submissions of the learned counsels to the plaintiffs and defendant, the presiding judge Muhammed Idris in his ruling declared that Section 251(1)(e) of the constitution empowered the court to hear and determine cases of copyrights infringement. He therefore dismissed the preliminary objection and awarded N10,000 to Onwenu.
The court will reconvene on April 30 for the hearing of the substantive case. Onwenu and her management company Ayollo Production Limited are seeking the award of damages to the tune of N200 million, litigation costs of N2 million and N500,000 as cost of employing legal representatives.
In a statement filed by their lawyer Barrister Mayowa Adeyemo of Alpha Lexis Partners, the plaintiffs submitted that Onyeka Onwenu had on March 8, 2013 entered into a digital rights acquisition agreement with IROKING whereby the latter became her non-exclusive representative for the sale, reproduction and digital transmission of her songs.
They further averred that throughout the subsistence of the agreement, IROKING, contrary to the terms of their agreement, failed to remit any revenue from the sale or distribution of her music. It also failed to render any account concerning its activities as her digital representative.
They also claimed that IROKING infringed on the intellectual property of the plaintiffs because they continued to sell, distribute, market and profit from Onyeka Onwenu’s songs long after the expiration of the agreement. They therefore prayed the court to award damages commensurate with their loss of profit.