Appeal Court To Rule on N703m Copyright Infringement Against Airtel, NUC

The Abuja Division of the Court of Appeal, Thursday, said it will communicate judgement date to all parties as it reserved judgement in two appeals from Zain Nigeria Ltd (now Airtel) and National Universities Commission, (NUC), to challenge a high court verdict that they pay N703 million damages to TV Xtra Production for infringing on its copyright.

A three-member panel of Justices of the appellate court led by Justice Stephen Adah, okayed the matter for judgement after counsel to all the parties adopted their briefs of argument.

The Federal High Court in Abuja had in a verdict it delivered on May 6, 2020, awarded the sum of N700m to TV Xtra as special and general damages, as well as another N3m to cover the litigation cost that was incurred by the Plaintiff.

The trial court found that the Defendants, Zain and NUC, aired a programme that was designed by TV Xtra, without its permission in 2009.
TV Xtra Production’s Chief Executive Officer who is equally the General Editor of Arise News, Christian Ogodo, had proved before the court that he designed and registered the quiz programme tagged “University Challenge”, with the Nigerian Copyright Commission, NCC, and presented same to the NUC for Nigerian schools.

Ogodo 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.

In its defence, Zain Nigeria, contended that TV Xtra was not the original owner of the programme, insisting that the idea was picked from a similar programme, the British Universities Challenge.

However, Justice Ekwo dismissed the claim of the Defendants.
The trial court said it was obvious that the Defendants misunderstood the case of plaintiff whom it noted had on approached the court to seek remedy for the infringement of his copyright to his work that was registered and existed in Nigeria at the time it was aired, and not in any other part of the world.

The court held that airing the programme on African Independent Television, AIT and the Nigerian Television Authority, NTA, without the permission of the originator, violated sections 2(a) (1), 6 (1) (a) (1) and 8 of the Copyrights Act.
According to the court: “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.

“I find that the case of the plaintiff succeeds on the merit. I make an order entering judgement on the terms of the claims”, Justice Ekwo ruled.
Meanwhile, arguing their appeals on Thursday, counsel to NUC, Solomon Akuma, and that of Zain, Rotimi Oguneso, urged the Court of Appeal to nullify the judgement of the high court on the premise that it lacked the jurisdiction to entertain the substantive suit.

They argued that the suit was filed about three months after the cause of action arose and was therefore statute barred.

NUC contended that the high court erred in law and occasioned a grave miscarriage of justice against it when it failed to give it the opportunity to defend the case when it started de novo (afresh).

The Commission told the appellate court that it was not given the opportunity to cross-examine two witnesses after the court adopted the evidence that was already laid before Justice Gabriel Kolawole who previously heard the matter.
However, counsel to TV Xtra, Okechukwu Uju-Azorji, urged the court to dismiss the appeals, noting the defendants were given adequate time to defend the matter at the high court, but they failed to do so.