In recent times, the wave of threat mumbled by veteran musician, Sir Victor Uwaifo against artistes that tamper with his intellectual property is almost becoming another raving melody in the industry.
In the past, he was popular for his songs including his 1963 mega hit, ‘Joromi’.
First, it was Jaywon who got a taste of the suing threat for remixing Uwaifo’s song ‘Joromi’ without permission. Jaywon had done a song titled ‘Jomi Joromi’. The most recent case is however against M3X’s artiste, Simisola Bolatito Ogunleye popular as Simi. Simi’s song with the same title was released in 2017, in her self-titled album, ‘Simisola’.
In both cases, Uwaifo’s claim has been based on intellectual property, theft and copyright infringement.
Explaining his rational for threatening to sue both musicians, Uwaifo said, “Copyright is a very serious business and the contravention of copyright laws is more serious than you can imagine.”
While you might want to say that the lyrics of Jaywon and Simi’s songs do not share any semblance with that of Uwaifo, he explains it thus: ‘Joromi’ is a franchise; the name never existed before. Benin doesn’t have ‘J’ in their language; if any started with ‘J’ in Benin then it is fake. All consonant words start with vowel sounds. For example, if I use the trademark of one of these soft drinks, it is wrong. So Simi is in trouble.”
On when he will be coming for the duo he said, “One after the other. I cannot just take everybody to court at the same time. They were planning to come to Benin to see me; up till now, they haven’t come, so I’m just putting that one on hold.”
Interestingly, Uwaifo was also quoted as saying that though he felt bad that the artistes didn’t take permission from him before remixing his song, being a father figure to them, he would not be taking them to court.
The question of where Uwaifo stands now arises.
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