Copyright infringement: Supreme Court gives TV Xtra approval to file N703m appeal
The Supreme Court on Friday gave TV Xtra Production approval to file appeal against Zain Nigeria Ltd (now Airtel) and National Universities Commission (NUC) seeking to enforce the payment of N703 million damages for infringing on its copyright.
A five-member panel of justices of apex court on Friday unanimously ordered TV Xtra to file processes of the appeal and serve same on the respondents with on 60 days.
The application was brought by TV Xtra through its counsel, Okechukwu Uju-Azorji Esq, challenging the judgement of the Court of Appeal which set aside the award of N703 million damages on the infringement of the firm’s copyright.
In the judgement delivered on March 19, 2021, the appellate court held that the suit was statute barred having been commenced three-month after the cause of action.
An Abuja Federal High Court presided by Justice Inyang Ekwo had on May 6, 2020 awarded the sum of N700 million to TV Xtra in both special and general damages and N3 million cost of the suit, after it found that Zain and NUC aired a programme designed by TV Xtra without permission in 2009.
TV Xtra Production’s CEO and General Editor Arise News, Christian Ojorovwu Ogodo, who designed and registered the quiz programme, ‘University Challenge’ with the Nigerian Copyright Commission (NCC) and presented it to NUC for Nigerian schools. He told the court that he was surprised to see the programme being aired on televisions by NUC and Zain four weeks after he made the presentation to the NUC.
Zain Nigeria in its defence contended that TV Xtra is not the original owner of the programme, explaining that the idea was picked from a similar programme, the British Universities Challenge.
But Justice Ekwo ruled that the defendants misunderstood the case of plaintiff who is seeking remedy for his work, not in any other part of the world, but registered in Nigeria and which existed at the time it was aired in Nigeria. He added that airing the programme on AIT and NTA without the permission of the author violated sections 2(a) (1), 6 (1) (a) (1) and 8 of the Copyrights Act.
“The law is that a work in Nigeria is the exclusive right of the owner to control the reproduction of the work in any material form and making adaptations of the work going by Section 6(1) (a) (1) and 8 of the Copyright Act,” the judge said.
“I find that the case of the plaintiff succeeds on the merit. I make an order entering judgement on the terms of the claims,” he added.
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