The appellant is a musician and lives in Lagos, Nigeria. He seems to have some creative talent and has been composing songs. Some time prior to October 1975, he composed, while in Lagos, a song entitled "Everything Scatter," and retained the copyright in it. A limited liability company by the name of Phonogram Ltd. (Nigeria) (hereinafter called the Nigerian company) appears to have been interested in making records and cassette tapes of that song for sale. The appellant was himself interested in disposing of his copyright in that song for a limited period and in a defined geographical area. Accordingly, on 14 October 1975, he and the Nigerian company entered into an agreement by which in consideration of the payment to him of a fixed sum of money, he assigned the copyright in the song to the company for three years.
That agreement was exhibited in these proceedings and in view of the argument addressed to us in this appeal, its true purport will fall for consideration later in this judgment. It is sufficient at this stage to state that the agreement conferred on the Nigerian company "the sole and exclusive right to produce or reproduce and sell the works in records and tapes . . . all over the continent of Africa . . . ”
The evidence shows that the Nigerian company licensed a Ghanaian company bearing the same name, that is Phonogram (Ghana) Ltd. to reproduce for them in this country the said musical works, and handed in the tape. The appellant visited this country in January 1976 and learnt that the Ghanaian company (hereinafter called the respondent) was in the process of reproducing the tape. The appellant's reaction to this was to institute the proceedings which culminated in this appeal. He sought to enjoin the respondent from publishing the tape, an order for its recovery and damages. He asked and obtained leave to serve with the writ, an application of interim injunction to restrain publication until the hearing [p.319] of the action on the professed ground that "if the defendant is not promptly restrained, he might permanently prejudice my rights."
The respondent resisted the motion and for its part, denied that its activities "constitute a breach and violation of the plaintiff's right or the term of the contract entered into by Phonogram Ltd. Nigeria)." It said it was licensed by the Nigerian company to reproduce the tapes and that in view of the nature of the agreement entered into between the appellant and the Nigerian company, the latter we
