Music artiste and comedian, Yinusa Sodiq Oriyomi, with stage name, Omopatakii, has accused pop singer and rapper, Olamide Adedeji, better known as Olamide, of intellectual property theft.
Recall that on February 10, 2020, Olamide released a nine-track EP, 999, which contained a song titled ‘Wonma’.
Omopatakii had dropped a content via comedy skit ‘Won ma do’ on August 17, 2019, on Instagram before that, which made him call out Olamide on Instagram on the same day of the EP release.
He wrote: “It’s so painful how we put in much energy to create a content and the next day u find it on another person page without giving credit to the rightful owner.
“Won ma do was dropped by me on August 17 2019 and here it appears on @olamide EP 999 without my consent I hope we can fight this together by reposting here and tag @olamide on all the platform till he sees this.”
In a letter, Omopatakii, through his lawyers, AK & Co, on March 10 wrote Olamide to formally notify him of the infringement with a demand of N50 million as damages and an end to the use of the work.
The letter read: “Our client informed us that on 17th August 2019, he created ad released his content via a comedy skit on Instagram titled ‘won ma do’ conveying an expression that regardless of what you do for a woman, she will still be slept with, using the phrase ‘won ma do’ as the comedy’s catchphrase and the phrase ‘o le te obinrin lorun’ meaning ‘you cannot satisfy a woman’ as the intro phase for the skit which he posted on his Instagram page ‘@omopatakii’ and the skit went viral on all social media platforms.”
The letter further read that Olamide used same expression in his EP’s track 5 titled ‘Wonma’, using ‘o le te obinrin lorun’ as the intro for the song.
It said the continuous use of Omopatakii’s work “constitutes an infringement of his copyright as well as his intellectual property rights which is in violation of the Nigerian Copyright Act.”
“Further to the foregoing, we hereby demand for the sum of N50,000,000 (Fifty Million Naira) damages for your unauthorised use of our client’s work and that you cease and desist from the use of our client’s work titled ‘won ma do,’” it said.
The letter also read that a legal suit would be instituted if a response is not received from Olamide within 14 working days from the date of the letter.
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