Nigerian Musician and comedian, Maleke Moye today dragged telecommunications giant, 9mobile to the Federal High Court Ikoyi presided over by Hon Justice Faji on allegations of intellectual property theft and commercial exploitation of the said stolen intellectual property.
Maleke who is the chair of the Edo State Chapter of the Performing Musicians Association of Nigeria, PMAN sued the Telecoms company for the unauthorized used of his intellectual properties.
The suit which was recently instituted against the telecommunications giant is asking for the payment of damages to the tune of 500 million Naira for the unauthorized copying, theft, sale and continuous resale for of sixteen different music tracks of Mr. Maleke as ring tunes on its website for a period upwards of seven years.
The plaintiff who spoke in court today lamented the huge financial loss he had suffered over the years due to the brazen display of recklessness by the telecommunications giant. He lamented further that all attempts to open communication channels with 9mobiles parent company were frustrated hence his resort to the law for remedy.
According to the artiste: “I am a performing artiste and I believe these are my intellectual properties being used by another organization without my consent.
They thought I was no longer active in the industry and felt they had the liberty to use my materials without due consultation. We actually reached out to them for amicable settlement, but they refused to give me and my team any audience and so we dragged them to court. I believe the court will decide and justice will definitely prevail”
Maleke went further to talk about the loss Nigerian artistes incur as a result of copyrights infringements on their materials: “It is quite unfortunate that a lot of Nigerian artistes don’t understand their rights and obligations in the industry.
That is why we ask them to join associations and leagues, but no they would want to do it on their on. No organization has the right to use your property without having an agreement with you”
The matter was adjourned till a later date for continuation of hearing.
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