[2023]DLHC15031 • April 4, 2023 • High Court
FRED KUSIM AWINDAOGO vs. MARTIN LUTHER KPEBU AND JOSEPHINE TEKPERTEY
The Plaintiff, a lawyer, conceived the idea of writing a book titled 'Annotated Evidence Act of Ghana' to annotate the Evidence Act, 1975 (NRCD 323). He initially worked with research assistants and later invited the 1st Defendant to collaborate as coauthor. A formal Author Collaboration Agreement was signed between the Plaintiff and 1st Defendant. Disputes arose over authorship, copyright ownership, and the conduct of the 1st Defendant, who claimed sole authorship and terminated the agreement. The 2nd Defendant was involved in typesetting and manuscript corrections and was alleged to have collaborated with the 1st Defendant to exclude the Plaintiff from authorship.
read moreJUDGMENT Kweku T. Ackaah-Boafo, JA [Sitting as Additional High Court Judge] i. Introduction: [1] The desire of the Plaintiff, a lawyer to contribute to the study of the Law of Evidence in Ghana by publishing a book based on the Evidence Act, NRCD 323, 1975, unintentionally, no doubt, is now making a contribution to the development of commercial litigation law in the field of intellectual property. What has happened is that the learned colleague he contacted (1st Defendant) to collaborate with him as co-author is now engaged in battle for the heart and soul of the book conceived and ready to be birthed. The 1st Defendant in fact claims exclusive paternity of the book. The Plaintiff on the other hand, conceptualizes the book to be a joint effort. The manner in which their dispute is to be resolved therefore is the subject matter of this litigation, and that is what is now before this Court. [2] Farwell, J in the old case of Donoghue v. Allied Newspaper Ltd. [1938] Ch. 106 s...