COSON slams Transcorp Hilton Abuja with multi-billion naira lawsuit

One of Nigeria’s biggest hotels, Transcorp Hilton Abuja, has been dragged to court by Copyright Society of Nigeria (COSON), the nation’s sole government approved Collective Management Organization for musical works and sound recordings. In the copyright infringement action filed by the Abuja based law firm of Ifeanyi Opara & Co, COSON
is also suing the American company, Hilton International Manage LLC, which manages hundreds of hotels in several countries across the globe. In Suit No FHC/ABJ/C5/503/2012 supported by a 34 paragraph Statement of Claim and over 40 exhibits, filed at the Federal High Court Abuja on August 13, 2012, COSON pleaded that the 2 nd Defendant (Hilton) which manages hotels in many countries around the world knows and ought to know that it is blatantly unlawful to infringe the intellectual property rights of creative people anywhere in the world but the 2nd Defendant has done nothing to end the brazen abuse of the intellectual property rights of owners of copyright in musical works and sound recordings in the huge facility managed by it in Nigeria and has rather continued to enjoy the profit emanating from such abuse. COSON went on to plead that the behaviour of the Defendants in the suit which is unacceptable practice in any of the many countries around the world where Hilton manages hotels has led to massive loss of jobs to the nation, significant loss of revenue to the country and heavy capital flight from Nigeria as most of the world’s best known international music companies such as EMI, Sony Music, Polygram, etc have divested from Nigeria and the domestic investors are leaving the industry in droves because of the intolerable amount of copyright infringement encouraged by the likes of the Defendants. COSON in the suit has asked the court for the award of more than three billion naira against the Defendants in unpaid royalties, interest on the unpaid royalties, general, exemplary and aggravated damages for the unauthorized copying, communication to the public, permission to perform and infringement of the copyright in the musical works and sound recordings belonging to its members, affiliates and assignors. The Collective Management Organization has also asked the court for a perpetual injunction restraining the Defendants, their agents, privies or servants from the unauthorized copying, communication to the public, permission to perform and infringement of the copyright in the musical works and sound recordings belonging to its members, affiliates and assignors. It will be recalled that in the last two months, COSON has filed several multi-billion naira copyright infringement actions and has signed copyright royalty agreements with different commercial users of music such as Google, Multichoice, Wazobia FM, STV/Rhythm FM, FRCN, LTV, Galaxy TV, etc.