Ghanaian music producer Kwabena Ofei-Kwadey Nkrumah, known as Spiky, has won his intellectual property rights case against the Confederation of African Football (CAF).
A commercial court in Accra ruled on Wednesday, July 17, finding CAF guilty of using Spiky’s music beat from his song titled “Okomfo Anokye” without obtaining legal permission.
The beat was used in promotional materials for the 2018 CAF awards.
Justice Emmanuel Loddoh, presiding over the case, awarded damages amounting to the equivalent of USD 250,000 in Ghanaian Cedis, along with legal costs totaling GHS 40,000, against CAF.
Kwabena Ofei-Kwadey Nkrumah, also known as Spiky, criticized CAF for disrespecting his intellectual property rights, causing him financial losses from potential commercial licensing of his music.
Before taking legal action against CAF, Spiky publicly accused them of copyright infringement in 2029 through a series of tweets. He mentioned that although CAF had acknowledged using his work without permission and apologized via email, they did not respond to his request for compensation.
CAF admitted to the wrongdoing, explaining that the music was freely available online for download without restrictions, which they used for promotional artwork on their social media platforms.
They clarified that they did not use the soundtrack for commercial purposes, stating that the CAF Awards were not operated as a profit-making venture.
Furthermore, they indicated that they had removed the work from their social media accounts and offered an apology to Spiky.
