INTELLECTUAL THEFT ALLEGATIONS: Lai’s decision to sue doesn’t scare us- PMAN

The Performing Musicians Employers Association of Nigeria (PMAN) says it will not be bullied by the Minister Lai Mohammed’s threat to sue it over allegations of intellectual theft.

In a strongly worded statement, the Union through its president, Pretty Okafor, said PMAN’s legal team is currently investigating how a certain advertising agency “THINK TANK MEDIA” got hold of PMAN’s Creative Industry Barcoding Project Proposal submitted in confidence to the Ministry Of Information.

The statement also revealed that PMAN seriously doubts that due process was adhered to between the Ministry and the so-called advertising agency given the tricky methods being utilized to plagiarize PMAN’s Blueprint.

PMAN in the statement added that the Agency has inadvertently confirmed publicly on published propaganda posts, that its own proposal to the Ministry is entirely different from PMAN’s proposal to the Ministry, even as it remains a mystery how the agency has access to PMAN’S Proposals.

About three weeks ago, PMAN accused the Minister of plagiarizing its proposal that was presented to him under the name ‘Bar Coding Technology for the Creative Industry in Nigeria’.

Read also: Lai in another intellectual property theft scandal

In the five-page petition written by Ifeanyi Ejiofor, Counsel to PMAN dated July 20, 2017, the Minister was asked to “desist forthwith from proceeding further with the implementation of action plans or any item agreed upon at the recently staged two-day conference on Creative Industry in Lagos.

According to PMAN, the proposal contained ideas on how to improve the creative industry and generate over N15 trillion in revenue for the government, and its recommendations in the proposal was what the government went ahead to implement under the guise of the ‘Creative Industry Financing Conference’.

However, the petition by PMAN was condemned by Think Tank Media which claimed ownership of the right in the literal works conceptualized and expressed through the Creative Nigeria Financing Conference.

In a statement signed by its Managing Director, Taiwo Olukunle, it claimed that neither the Minister nor the Ministry of Information and Culture had anything to do with the conceptualization and development of the Creative Industry Financing Conference.

Think Tank Media in the statement also said that the allegation against the person of the Minister of Information and Culture, Mr. Lai Mohammed with regard to the Creative Industry Financing Conference is spurious, highly misplaced and borders on a sinister plan to intentionally malign his person and put his good works into disrepute.

By Ahmed Boulor…

 

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