Monday 30 November 2009

Darren Olivier

Monday morsels

Two Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) judgments were handed down in South Africa last week. The High Court decisions in the Turbek KG matter (see Afro-IP report here) and Century City (see Afro-IP report here) have both been overruled by the wise sitting in Bloemfontein. Afro Leo is waiting for them to be published on Saflii so that he can link to them. Both cases involve appeals by close corporations (a type of legal entity created to enhance small business) illustrating affordable access to the SCA (South Africa's highest commercial court). The cases also show the relatively good speed of the appeal process (approximately one year) but, worryingly, that three out of the four recent High Court trade mark decisions taken on appeal to the SCA, have been overturned. The Turbek decision is a success for Nolwazi Gcaba who counselled the appellant.

The latest attempt by a East African legal drafters to find a legal home for the stray, Traditional Knowledge and Culture, under constitutional law has been met with a fair degree of criticism. This report by the Daily Nation entitled "Culture can't be captured in any constitution" makes some interesting observations and suggests, somewhat ironically, that traditional knowledge is better protected under existing intellectual property laws.
(Right: anyone got a home for Tradknow?)

In response to questions from the media regarding Fifa’s Rights Protection Programme, the City of Cape Town has clarified the position of local businesses regarding the commercial exploitation of the 2010 Fifa World Cup Final Draw on 4 December. (Business as usual for local business)

The 4th Kenya International Film Festival held in October was, according to The East African, an impossibly ambitious and imaginative project. However, it reports that film production is growing exponentially in the region and that the agenda included a workshop on intellectual property protection.
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Friday 27 November 2009

Darren Olivier

Registry week - global trademark filing stats

The US Patent and Trade Mark Office recently released its 2009/2010 Annual Report which showed a 13% fall in annual trade mark filings from a record high in 2008/2009. The figures show a decline to 2006 levels. The equivalent report from the European Community Trade Mark Office illustrates that we might expect (they run a calendar year) a 3-5% drop in filings from a record high in 2008. The International Registration (WIPO) figures have not been released although there was mention of a slowdown in March this year in a report on their record filings in 2009. Afro Leo stands to be corrected but the the equivalent trade mark statistics from Cipro show a drop off of between 25% and 35%.

A decline in filings statistics is expected in these economic times. The last time we experienced a similar worldwide fall was in the early 2000s following the dot com crash. What is interesting is the relatively good performance of the European figures against the US figures which also, in Afro Leo's view, are fairly robust given the extent of the crash and the record highs reported in 2008/9. The EU stats can probably be interpreted as another illustration of the success of the paperless OHIM office. The dramatic drop at the South African Office is less easy to explain, especially since South Africa has performed relatively well during this recession. Perhaps it is because the single class filing system used in RSA is more exposed during periods of slow economic activity and/or because the relative strength of the Rand has put a significant strain on US budgets or perhaps it is simply because when the world sneezes RSA stats often come down with the flu, such is a the volatility experienced by developing countries?
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Thursday 26 November 2009

Darren Olivier

Registries in the news..again

South Africa - The Department of Trade and Industry is proceeding with plans to convert the Companies and Intellectual Property Registration Office (Cipro) into a self- standing commission. The department hopes the creation of a new structure will give added momentum to attempts to improve the functioning of Cipro and ensure that it fulfils the mandate of the new Companies Act, which will assign new educational, research and enforcement powers to the commission. Cipro’s strategic plan for the next few years — also tabled in Parliament last week — noted that one of the organisation’s key objectives was to ensure “quick, responsive and easy access” to services online as well as a possible reduction in fees for company registrations for small businesses. (Business Day).

Botswana - Intellectual property is key to economic development and other spheres of wealth creation. As such it remains crucial to the commercialisation of technology, development of science and trade in goods and services, said Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Trade and Industry, Ms Banny Molosiwa. She was speaking at the official opening of the 33rd session of the Administration Council of the African Regional Intellectual Property Organisation (ARIPO) in Gaborone two days ago. BOPA

Afro Leo says that it is great to hear positive news about Cipro and would welcome further news about the Aripo conference in Gabarone.
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Tuesday 24 November 2009

Darren Olivier

Registries in the news..for different reasons

WIPO has launched an enhanced online patent information service that will improve public access to information on patents filed and granted around the world. WIPO’s PATENTSCOPE®, which currently hosts data on more than 1.6 million international patent applications filed under the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT), has been extended to include several collections of national and regional patent information. In this first phase, WIPO’s PATENTSCOPE® includes the patent data collections of eight patent offices: African Regional Intellectual Property Organization (ARIPO), Cuba, Israel, Republic of Korea, Mexico, Singapore, South Africa and Vietnam.



Closer to home...more problems. The Risk Manager at Cipro has reportedly been suspended on a charge of "breach of confidentiality" after he supplied information to the Police involving tender rigging charges made against Cipro's Chief Information Officer. The Democratic Alliance asks: "If informants are not protected, then what is the prospect of fighting corruption in government?" Cipro's CEO lambasts the remarks as "highly unproductive and futile for a member of parliament to continue with these allegations whereby CIPRO as an organisation is being undermined and its credibility being attacked." (Politicsweb)


This unfortunate news comes just as CIPRO had managed to regain a small measure on its credibility rating with news of arrests following the Ciprogate fraud scandal reported by Afro-IP here. It will not help that respected Leadership magazine has picked up the story with this scathing comment about CIPRO when reporting over steps taken by President Zuma to deal with the corruption problem across RSA, generally:


"CIPRO has long been a den of corruption, incompetence and chaos with many cases of fraud committed at CIPRO having recently come to light. Many professionals such as lawyers who deal with it on a daily basis consider it to be something of a joke while it [CIPRO] should be above reproach as a fundamental service of vital importance to business and the protection of intellectual property rights."

On a more positive note, Afro Leo recently met with four officials in the company and close corporation name objection department for an hour to discuss the workings of the office and how it is dealing with cases of fraud. He is pleased to say that in obvious cases of fraud the expense of a formal objection under the company and close corporation names legislation is not necessary, and Cipro has undertaken to deal with these cases on an expeditious basis on being alerted to the problem. That said clients may still need to file an objection to meet deadlines in case the registration is not found to be fraudulent.
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Monday 23 November 2009

Darren Olivier
Afro-IP has not been hot on the heels of the developments surrounding the not-so-secret Anti-Counterfeiting and Trade Agreement which, at this stage, has been "secretly" negotiated with only one African country, Morocco. However, since the ACTA is being negotiated outside of WTO, WIPO, the G8 or other formal existing structures and because counterfeiting is Africa's single largest IP dilemma, Afro Leo believes that the plurilateral trade agreement requires more attention from African commentators and interested parties than has currently been the case.

The scope of ACTA is broad, including counterfeit physical goods, as well as "internet distribution and information technology". The leaked document [on wikileaks] includes a provision to force Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to provide information about suspected copyright infringers without a warrant and also conflicts with the burden of proof of guilt. The main thrust of ACTA is to provide safe harbor for service providers so that they may not hesitate to provide information about infringers; this may be used, for instance, to quickly identify and stop infringers once their identities are confirmed by their providers. Similarly, it provides for criminalization of copyright infringement, granting law enforcement the powers to perform criminal investigation, arrests and pursue criminal citations or prosecution of suspects who may have infringed on copyright. It also allows criminal investigations and invasive searches to be performed against individuals for whom there is no probable cause, and in that regard weakens the presumption of innocence and allows what would in the past have been considered unlawful searches. More pressingly, being an international treaty, it allows for these provisions—usually administered through public legislation and subject to judiciary oversight—to be pushed through via closed negotiations among members of the executive bodies of the signatories, and once it is ratified, using trade incentives and the like to persuade other nations to adopt its terms without much scope for negotiation. (Wikipedia)

The recent Mr Video case is an illustration of how RSA copyright law contains provisions designed to assist the American film industry (the letting/importation provision). With broadband starting to become a way of life for many RSA consumers the problem of Internet piracy will no doubt start to become much more prominent. The treaty is likely to have ramifications (perhaps very positive ones) for Nollywood - the exponentially growing film industry in Nigeria. Open access groups on the other hand will be up in arms. Is it time to further the debate with more African perspective or is this legislation so practically incompatible with most African IP enforcement regimes, that comment is meaningless at this stage? Does the SAIPPL (the largest formal body of IP practitioners in Africa) have a view?
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Friday 20 November 2009

Afro Ng'ombe

Members of Nigeria’s Musical Copyright Society visit South Africa for Training

In a beautiful example of cross-continent collaboration, CISAC (Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers), SAMRO (South African Music Rights Organisation) and SARRAL (South African Recording Rights Association Limited) have sponsored two members of Musical Copyright Society of Nigeria (MCSN) to attend a training in South Africa.

The Vanguard reports that the training is focusing on a new copyright administration system called C-Basic that “enables copyright societies to upload data in a standard form for all sister societies.”  Afro-Leo was unable to find any further information about this new system and can only relay that the Vanguard views the CISAC course as a positive investment in the future of Nigeria’s copyright system.  If any readers have more information about the new administration system, please let Afro-Leo know.

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Thursday 19 November 2009

Jeremy

LOTTO case: a recent article

The December 2009/January 2010 issue of the World Trademark Review, published six times a year by Globe Business Publishing's IP Media Group, carries an article by Owen Dean and Lauren Frizelle (both of Spoor & Fisher) on the recent decision of the South African Supreme Court of Appeal in On-line Lottery Services (Pty) Ltd v National Lotteries Board -- the LOTTO trade mark case -- which Afro-IP wrote up on 8 September (see here). African trade mark litigation is not as widely covered in the international law reviews as Afro Leo would like, and he hopes to see more of the same in future issues.

You can view the full contents of this issue on World Trademark Review's website here.
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Wednesday 18 November 2009

Jeremy

Libya amends trade mark rules: how will this affect licensing practice?

The INTA Bulletin, volume 64, no. 21, brings news of an amendment to Libya's trade mark law. Decision No. 316, which came into force on 5 July, has made a number of changes to that country's basic trade mark regime. Among other things it provides that
"trade mark licences with regard to products or services of the same class will not be granted to more than one person. A licence may also not be granted to more than one person with regard to associated trade marks registered in the same class. In addition, the trade mark licence agreement will include the licence duration, which will not exceed the trade mark’s protection period".
Afro Leo wonders how this will affect, for example, trade mark licences that accompany a business format franchise, where the licensing of the same trade mark to a multiplicity of licensees is the norm.
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Darren Olivier

Roses, Cheetahs and Gandalf – The SCA

On Monday Afro Leo had occasion to visit the Supreme Court of Appeal which is situated in a grand but compact building in Bloemfontein. Readers of this blog have asked for a piece on the experience.

Whilst it is overwhelmingly apparent why Bloemfontein is known as the “city of roses", especially at this time of year, Bloemfontein’s other symbol – the cheetah – was (fortunately) only represented on vehicle number plates, by the quick minds of those presenting and hearing argument, and by the way in which five judges play with an argument as if it were captive prey. The bench prod from all angles as they seek to test whether appeal submissions are indeed, alive. Arguments are generally allowed to run but always under a watchful eye. Quality time is of the essence in appeals. Occasionally arguments are dragged back by the tail, sometimes reluctantly and other times without fuss. Every now and again they are picked up, examined, turned around and upside down and then returned, but not always gently. It is in these forums that Counsel’s abilities are really tested and judges' ability to hone in on key aspects, remarkable.

Under RSA law an appeal in IP matters is normally made out on the papers and in the heads of argument, filed well in advance. The appeal is therefore relatively quick and judges play an active role. We have come to expect wise words from Bloemfontein - after all the creator of Gandalf the Grey was born there. Perhaps that is why Bloemfontein is also South Africa’s judicial capital?
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Tuesday 17 November 2009

roshana

A sweet victory

Ferrero four years later
Four years ago, Ferrero successfully defended its confectionery marks against a FIFA attack. Sadly, the judgment came too late for them to market their confectionery during the 2006 FIFA Soccer World Cup. A reference to a new German decision between the same parties on IPKat will be of great interest to Afro-IP readers. Regular readers of the latter blog will recall the Metcash decision, discussed a short while ago, where FIFA successfully prevented Metcash from marketing confectionery referring to soccer and 2010 (see here http://afro-ip.blogspot.com/2009/10/fifa-v-metcash-judgment.html).
The good news from Germany is that the Bundesgerichthof (their Federal Supreme Court) upheld Ferrero’s trade mark registrations for WM (World Cup in German) and 2010 (no details available yet, but presumably in the confectionery class). As yet, the posting refers only to a press release, but maybe attorneys for Metcash will make sure the decision is available in English to readers of Afro-IP in due course? See IPKat here (http://ipkitten.blogspot.com/2009/11/ferrero-v-fifa-in-world-cup-trade-mark.html).
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Monday 16 November 2009

roshana

SAGA is teed off

On Monday, the Western Cape High Court handed down a judgment on the interface between company names and trade marks (they are making rather a habit of it – one of the only two reported decisions last year, Cape Town Lodge CC v Registrar of Close Corporations and another [2008] 2 All SA 34 (C), also from this court, dealt with similar issues.)

The South African Golf Association (SAGA) objected to the name South African Junior Golf Association (SAJGA) registered as a s.21 company name. The Registrar of Companies held that the name was undesirable, but the court set aside this decision, first on the basis that SAGA itself is an unincorporated association as so could not rely on the Registrar’s directive that a name would be undesirable if very similar to an already registered name, and secondly because SAGA could not produce proof of actual public confusion.

Once again, the Western Cape High Court illustrated the common warning given by trade mark practitioners – ‘if the name contains descriptive words this may result therein that they are not distinctive of any particular business’ (para 9 - compare Cape Town Lodge above where the court held that general words in current use, which are descriptive of the goods or services provided under the mark, will not be afforded protection in terms of company legislation or trade mark and passing off principles (para [48])).

SAGA also filed a counter application for expungement of SAJGA’s trade mark (consisting of the word mark South African Junior Golf Association) in class 41 on the basis of its existing registrations in the same class, relying on s 10(12) and 10(14) of the SA Trade Marks Act. The Court’s reasoning here is, with respect, unfortunate. It held that SAGA had to prove reputation to rely on either s.10(12) or s.10(14). This is not correct; the cases referred to by the court both refer only to the precursors of s 10(12). Section 10(14), its precursors and UK equivalents have never required proof of reputation as precondition for success. The existence of the SAGA registrations should have acted as complete bar to the SAJGA mark. It is quite incomprehensible that the SAJGA mark was ever allowed on the register – not only is it in the same class as that of SAGA (one of its marks being the word mark South African Golf Association) but the specification is not limited to junior golf (neither does it refer to any charitable, or Christian activities).

The court’s argument that the two bodies do not render the same service is irrelevant for infringement proceedings; the specification for SAGA’s marks is sufficiently broad to cover that for the SAGJA mark.

Hopefully SAGA will take the matter on appeal, if only to clarify this court’s interpretation of the test for expungement in terms of s 10(14).

But, in the light of this judgment, I wonder what the chances are of a successful opposition by SAIIPL (Southern African Institute of Intellectual Property Law) to the newly formed SAAPIL (South African Association of Personal Injury Lawyers)? Probably not good!
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Thursday 12 November 2009

Darren Olivier

Rolex Gang gate crashes IP Crammer seminar

Yesterday Afro Leo (in his alter ego) was fortunate enough to speak and contribute at Bowman Gilfillan's IP Crammer seminar which had around 70 people in attendance. There is much to be said about a good venue, excellent content, a thoughtful contributing audience and a chairman who knows how to make it flow and hold it together. Afro Leo was thoroughly impressed and also fortunate enough to meet some this blog's loyal followers for the first time. There was also an opportunity to meet the head of the infamous "Rolex gang" who pitched up without a name badge and just a few hours late.

The IP Crammer seminar presented a moment for this leo to consider the Harare and Banjul Protocols following my fellow Afro-IP contributors, David and Paul's comments on the controversial Kenyan patent decision posted here. My thoughts for your consideration:

A review of the two Protocols (Harare and Banjul) indicates that substantive examination of patents and utility models is undertaken by or on behalf of ARIPO centrally but examination of industrial designs and trade marks is left to Member States. Under the trade mark protocol (Banjul) there is a specific provision that cancellation of trade mark rights is to be dealt with under local law unlike the provisions dealing with patents and utility models. There is no clear provision relating to industrial designs; in fact the wording (Section 4(6) of the Harare Protocol) is very similar to s59 of the Kenyan legislation decided on in Chemserve. It would therefore appear that this decision:

  • Indicates (unsurprisingly) that provisions of national law are very important when enforcing and defending rights under ARIPO. ARIPO commentators who had acknowledged that only a few member states had incorporated ARIPO protocols into national law (especially relating to trade marks) but felt that ARIPO rights would still be recognized or protectable under the spirit of the protocols, will be exposed as optimists.
  • This judgment shows the importance of accurate drafting of local laws when it comes to ARIPO rights. Those wishing to use the ARIPO systems will need to assess the actual wording of local legislation to ensure that rights can be properly enforced or defended.
  • Ironically, IP portfolio managers may now have more reason to use the ARIPO system because of the difficulties in having certain rights revoked. For example, it would be very handy to obtain an interim injunction (if possible and one is persuasive enough) whilst the cancellation counterclaim navigated its way down the Zambezi and through the ARIPO tribunal. Filing for rights using both the local and ARIPO system may give the IP litigator a number of useful options when enforcing the right.

About three hours after the IP Crammer seminar Afro Leo received an Eye Witness News link from Sara Spiro (in fact we were all eye witnesses - it took place outside IP Crammer seminar venue) of the capture of the suspected "Rolex Gang" kingpin. Just in case we needed it ... a timely reminder that African IP is never dull. Oh, and "Rolex Gang".... is that unfair advantage or detriment? ;)

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Tuesday 10 November 2009

Afro Ng'ombe

Software Raid in Lagos Confiscates High Quality Copies

Nigeria’s Vanguard reports on a recent counterfeit software raid in Lagos.  The Nigerian Copyright Commission (NCC) confiscated a number of copies of various Microsoft products.  Unlike the usual pieces of counterfeit software collected in raids conducted by the Commission, these items were of high quality.  The NCC stated that the seller of the counterfeit goods deliberately purchased high quality counterfeit goods in order to trick even those customers who look out for counterfeit products.  The article did not say how the NCC knew that the seller himself was not tricked into thinking these were genuine Microsoft products.

Usually, the discussion about counterfeit software in Africa takes note of the harm caused by poor quality products, viruses and malware that harm the unsuspecting users computer. Since these products were of high quality, those kinds of ill effects presumably were not an issue.  However, it is important to note that the sale of high quality counterfeit goods also has harmful effects:

“Piracy is not a victimless crime. The activities of Plum Telecom put the businesses of legitimate resellers in jeopardy and impact the credibility of the Nigerian IT reselling community as a whole.” – Mr. John Ogboru of the Computer and Allied Products Dealers Association of Nigeria

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Darren Olivier

Mr Video - the stills

IP extraordinaire Dr Wim Alberts has kindly provided this explanation of the Mr Video decision after Afro-Ip had reported that its logic had had many an IP practitioner in a twist:

The Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) recently gave judgment in a copyright matter involving the parallel importation of DVDs. The facts appear from the ruling of the court a quo, the Cape Provincial Division. Copyright proceedings were launched by Nu Metro, Twentieth Century Fox, Disney, Warner Bros, and Videovision - the first and last parties being South African companies. Nu Metro was an exclusive licensee. Mr Video allegedly infringed the rights of the above parties by importing and letting DVDs. Mr Video conceded the issue of infringement, but not the locus standi of Nu Metro, and the order for delivery up. The issue of genuine goods was however resurrected in the context of section 24. Section 24, which provides for orders for delivery-up, refers to an “infringing copy”. Regard was thus had to the definition of this term in the Act. It was defined, as far as cinematograph films were concerned, to be an imported article the making of which would have constituted an infringement of copyright if the article had been made in South Africa.

In the application of this provision, a material issue was the "zones" to which the purchase of the DVDs related. Mr Video obtained zone 1 DVDs, intended for the United States market, whilst South Africa is in fact a zone 2 country. Mr Video argued that the zone 1 DVDs which they have made available in South Africa, are not infringing copies of the original work in respect of which the copyright owners enjoy copyright, as the zone 1 DVDs were manufactured in the United States with the consent of the copyright owners. It was argued that the court has to proceed on the hypothesis that the zone 1 DVDs which they have made available in South Africa, were made in South Africa by the person who in fact made it. Accordingly, the zone 1 DVDs which Mr Video made available in South Africa, are genuine copies.

The court did not accept this view. It was said that one should not lose sight of the fact that the American manufacturer of the DVDs could not have enjoyed the right to manufacture them in South Africa, as its permission to manufacture was geographically limited to the zone 1 market. Nu Metro has been granted the exclusive right to produce copies of the films for the South African (zone 2) market. Accordingly, had the American manufacturer of the zone 1 DVDs manufactured them in South Africa, it would have been done outside the scope of such manufacturer’s licence and in breach of the exclusive licence to produce and distribute the films in DVD form in South Africa.

An aspect pointed out by the SCA, in relation to the order for delivery-up, was that the opposition to such an order was an indication of an intent to trade in the goods. Moreover, as the DVDs were acquired for an unlawful purpose, there is no lawful use to which they can be put in South Africa. The history of Mr Video’s conduct with regard to zone 1 DVDs also militated against any suggestion that Nu Metro and the owners of the copyright in the films would be properly protected if an order was not made.

This decision shows the need for understanding that whilst intellectual property rights are essentially territorial, conduct outside the country can still, in a sense, be adjudicated upon here. The ruling also links up with earlier decisions where the assignment of copyright to an unrelated party took place, and copyright infringement was found to exist where goods, the manufacture of which was lawful overseas, were involved. The decision is another weapon in the arsenal of copyright owners in so far as grey goods are concerned.
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Friday 6 November 2009

Jeremy

SAMRO v Gilfillan and the "tyranny of litigation"

Literally hot off the press, here's the judgment of the High Court of South Africa (North Gauteng Provincial Division) of 4 November in South African Music Rights Organisation Ltd (SAMRO) v Graeme Gilfillan, the Brenda Fassie case (see earlier posts here, here and here on Afro-IP for some SAMRO background and history).

In short, this was an attempt by SAMRO to obtain a full or interim interdict to stop its outspoken critic Graeme Gilfillan "publishing any defamatory and/or derogatory statements ... and/or from publishing injurious falsehoods" about it pending the arbitration of David Feldman N.O. v SAMRO, a now well-publicised dispute relating to Feldman's attempts to secure accounts in relation to copyright royalties owed to Brenda Fassie's estate.

Dismissing the application for an interdict, the court reviewed the evidence, the submissions and the conduct of the dispute to date, and concluded:
"The applicant has failed to establish a prima facie right to interdict the respondent from publishing a statement of which the contents are unknown in the future".
Then, citing with approval the words of Mhlantla AJA in National Council of Societies for the Prevention of Cruelty of Animals v Openshaw 2008 (5) SA 399 (SCA), the court added:
"There is such a thing as the tyranny of litigation, and a Court of law should not allow a party to drag out proceedings unduly".
You can read or download pages 1 to 10 of the judgment of Pretorius J here and pages 11 to 19 here. Afro Leo looks forward to hearing more news about this action.
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Tuesday 3 November 2009

Njuguna

Copyright Society stopped from collecting ring tone royalties

According to Business Daily here, the High Court has ordered the Music Copyright Society of Kenya (MCSK) to stop collecting ring tone royalties from Cellulant Kenya Ltd pending an appeal to the Court of Appeal.

Justice Luka Kimaru however ordered Cellulant to deposit KSh. 2 million within 30 days failure to which the injunctive order would automatically cease.


Cellulant is in the business of offering mobile phone value added services of musical and artistic works such as phone ring tones, logos and pictures. To facilitate its business, it had entered into agreements with music artists in relation to the songs to be used as ring tones. For the use of the music, Cellulant pays royalties directly to the artists.

The order arises from a ruling in an earlier case in July, when Cellullant failed to obtain orders restraining the Society from demanding royalties in respect of the ring tones. However it obtained an interlocutory injunction restraining MCSK from trespassing into its premises and interfering with its business. Apparently MCSK had raided the premises of the plaintiff and seized four computers on allegations that the Cellulant had infringed copyright of its members.

It is against these orders that Cellulant then pleaded with the High Court to restrain the society from demanding royalties pending the appeal. Cellulant contends that MCSK has no right to demand payment since it had entered into agreements with individual music artists who it was paying for use of the music content.
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Monday 2 November 2009

Jeremy

African nations score poorly for entrepreneurship, innovation in latest Legatum index

PR Newswire reports on the third edition of the Legatum Prosperity Index, which ranks 104 countries (covering 90% of the world's population) by criteria of prosperity that combine economic growth together with measures of happiness and quality of life. According to this news item,
Thanks to strong communities and democratic institutions, South Africa is the highest ranked sub-Saharan African nation, placed 51st, closely followed by Botswana at 56th. The majority of African countries rank in the bottom 15 with the Central African Republic, Sudan and Zimbabwe ranked dead last at 101st, 103rd, and 104th respectively. ...
Key Findings from the 2009 Legatum Prosperity Index

- All but two Sub-Saharan African countries rank within the bottom 25% of the rankings for entrepreneurship and innovation. ...

- The Central African Republic ranks lowest globally for both entrepreneurship and innovation and health. ...

AFRICA

51. South Africa
55. Botswana
64. Mali
67. Namibia
71. Tunisia
83. Ghana
84. Senegal
85. Morocco
88. Egypt
89. Mozambique
92. Zambia
96. Algeria
97. Kenya
98. Tanzania
99. Nigeria
100. Cameroon
101. Central African Republic
103. Sudan
104. Zimbabwe

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