Spiky: Music producer wins about GH4M from suing CAF for unauthorised song use

After a prolonged legal battle spanning over five years, Commercial Court 7 in Accra has ruled against the Confederation of African Football (CAF) for infringing on the intellectual property rights of Ghanaian producer and tech enthusiast Spiky, born Kwabena Ofei-Kwadey Nkrumah.

The court found CAF guilty of using Spiky’s musical beat, 'Okomfo Anokye,' without permission in promotional materials for the 2018 CAF Awards.

Spiky’s legal team, Anku.Anku At-Law, argued that CAF plagiarised, appropriated, and infringed on Spiky's copyright by failing to acknowledge him as the owner of the music. They asserted that CAF's actions showed blatant disrespect and disregard for Spiky’s proprietary rights, resulting in significant financial losses due to missed licensing opportunities for commercial use.

The lawsuit emerged in 2019, three years after Spiky publicly accused CAF of copyright infringement via tweets. In his documents, Spiky noted that CAF had sent an email admitting to the infringement and apologising but had not responded to his demands for compensation.

In their defence, CAF admitted to using the soundtrack without prior consent but claimed it was freely available online and used for non-commercial purposes, as the awards were a non-profit event. CAF stated that they had removed the artwork featuring Spiky’s music from their social media platforms and apologised immediately upon being notified of the infringement.

Despite these claims, Spiky maintained that his rights needed to be vindicated. “It’s not merely a settlement I’m looking for. My rights need to be vindicated, and that’s why I’m in court. Intellectual property is respected in other jurisdictions. They’d be scrambling to settle the issue as fast as possible if it was an international artist, but it’s taken five years,” he said at the onset of the case.

In Wednesday’s ruling, Justice Emmanuel Loddoh issued an injunction against CAF, ordering them to remove all infringing materials from their social media platforms. The court also awarded Spiky damages amounting to the Ghana cedi equivalent of USD 250,000, which is about GH3,853,170.00 according to today's exchange rate. CAF has also been charged GHC 40,000 to Spiky as legal costs.

Reacting to the ruling, Spiky expressed that the decision was a significant victory for many producers whose creative works have been stolen or used without proper compensation. “This legal battle and subsequent ruling is a win for the numerous other producers whose creative works have been stolen or illegally used without getting appropriate or any compensation,” he stated in a report by starrfmonline.

Accordingly, when you spot Spiky around, feel free to address him as a Millionaire (in Cedi) because, at this point, he is worth it.