PEARSON EDUCATION LIMITED v. MORGAN ADZEI

DR. DATE-BAH JSC:

Introduction

This case is of seminal importance in determining the reach of copyright law in Ghana. The appellant has resisted the respondent’s claim of infringement of copyright with several defences, but the one which has attracted my attention most is that which asserts that the protection of copyright law does not extend to the facts of this case, because what has been reproduced is no more than an idea. This defence raises for the consideration of this Court the essence of copyright law. What is the balance of interests that is struck by the Copyright Act 2005 (Act 690) in common with copyright legislation elsewhere? This is the fundamental question that this Court needs to address in this case. Copyright law endeavours to strike a balance between protecting the economic rights of owners of copyright and the need to encourage the free exchange and dissemination of ideas which is vital for the development and progress of any society. This is why section 2 of the Copyright Act 2005 provides as follows:

“Section 2—Ideas, concepts excluded from copyright

Copyright shall not extend to ideas, concepts, procedures, methods or other things of a similar nature.”

This case, in my view, requires of this Court a clarification and application of the law relating to the scope of the law of copyright in Ghana and is not limited, as contended by the respondent, to a consideration of whether the findings of fact made by the learned trial judge are sustainable in the light of the evidence on record.

The facts

The facts of the case should be narrated next to enable an appreciation of the issues of law raised in the case. The respondent, who was the plaintiff in the trial court, is the author of a novel entitled: “Woes of the African Mother”, (hereinafter referred to as “Woes”) which was first published in August 1982. This novel was selected by the West African Examination Council as one of the prescribed texts for prose in the English Language paper for the academic years 2004 to 2006 for the Basic Education Certificate Examination (“BECE”). The respondent, in his action commenced at the Commercial Division of the High Court, Accra, on 10th November 2005, claimed that, following a meeting of the Directors of the Ghana Education Service (“GES”) on the literature component of the Basic School English Language examination, it was decided that Junior Secondary School I pupils should be examined for prose in, inter alia, the respondent’s novel. A re