Copyright infringement: Srem Sai, another sue lawyer who won against Kpebu
You may recall that Mr. Awindago, the defendant in this case, won a similar case against the lawyer and Human Rights activist, Martin Kpebu this year
Lawyer and Senior lecturer at the GIMPA Law faculty, Dr.Justice Srem Sai, and Cletus Alengah also a lawyer, have sued a state prosecutor at the Attorney General’s Office, Fred Awindago for copyright infringement and breach of contract.
The plaintiffs are demanding among others damages and an order of perpetual injunction to restrain the defendant from publishing or causing to be published any book or literary work on Constitutional Law of Ghana containing their raw briefs.
You may recall that Mr. Awindago, the defendant in this case, won a similar case against the lawyer and Human Rights activist, Martin Kpebu this year.
Similarly, per this suit dated April 18, 2022, and signed by the Srem sai of the Praetorium Solicitors in Accra, the plaintiffs note that somewhere in 2019, they signed an Author Collaboration Agreement with the defendant to author a book on case summaries on Constitutional Law.
It notes that the parties agreed and shared among themselves which works to brief the sources of the same. Dr. Srem Sai, in particular, was to’ brief all Supreme Court decisions on each Article of the constitution reported in the Ghana Law Report.”
On the part of the defendant, he was tasked with briefing unreported decisions of the Supreme Court on each Article of the Constitution as of 2020.
The plaintiffs further aver that contrary to their agreement relative to the mode of sharing, editing, and the number of pages of the book, the defendant nicodemously assigned his portion of work to the second plaintiff to brief without the first plaintiff's knowledge.
Then came the time of submission of the work but the plaintiffs further indicated that the defendant gave them a long line of excuses including the fact that he was busy with his Ph.D. program in Europe.
After this episode, the plaintiffs note that somewhere in 2021, the defendant, Mr Awindago informed them that he had completed his share of the work but to their amazement, he rather ‘cunningly and artfully offered’ to consolidate the plaintiffs' Raw briefs with his own for onward submission.
However, the plaintiffs, Srem Sai, and Alengah note that all attempts via meetings and mediations to get the defendant to submit his part of the completed work have proven futile.
According to them, this posture of Mr. Awindago has invoked fear in them that he would unjustly or unfairly appropriate their Intellectual property in the raw briefs.
Reliefs
They are therefore seeking additionally, that the defendant’s refusal to submit his side of the raw briefs and refusal to continue with the book project has breached the Author Collaboration Agreement and any related ones.
Also, a declaration that they(plaintiffs) are discharged from all obligations under the Author Collaboration Agreement.
Moreover, they are seeking damages against the defendant for breach of contract and an order of injunction restraining the defendant from appropriating their intellectual property in the Raw Briefs.
