Joseph Mutoriah Mwaura, a musician and producer, was going through his timelines on August 31 when he stumbled on a skit posted on the official Instagram account of actress and content creator Foi Wambui.
The musician, popularly known as Mutoriah, took an interest in the video.
The skit showed Foi and a male companion making romantic memories together while taking photos using an Oppo phone.
A voice in the skit urges her to delete the photos she had taken with her lover. She gets to discover a feature on her Oppo Reno 12 5G phone that allows her to remove the man from all the photos she had taken with him.
While this happens, the song “Beta” plays as the soundtrack to the skit.
It was at that point that Mutoriah, the original composer and performer of the song, realised that his work had been used to promote the smartphone.
On September 10, Mutoriah, through his lawyers, sent out a letter to Foi and Oppo Kenya, demanding a public apology and admission of guilt for using his song to promote the phone without his consent.
That did not happen. Mutoriah filed a case in court against the actress and the Chinese phone maker on November 7.
Aifluence Ltd, a marketing agency, has also been named in the suit, appearing as the third defendant.
Mutoriah told the court that the caption in the skit indicated that Foi was promoting the device launched at the time, as well as Oppo Kenya which appears as the second defendant.
“This use of my work amounts to copyright infringement as I had not licensed its use as the owner. Such use of copyrighted music would require a synchronisation licence. The same licence was not procured from me by the defendants,” Mutoriah says in court papers.
The singer adds that Foi caused further infringement on his copyrights by choosing to publish the video on her Instagram account.
“The second defendant aggravated the infringement by reposting the video on its corporate page,” he says.
“The manager admitted liability on the her part for creating the video and synchronising it with my song but blamed the second defendant for putting the same video on its social media pages as sponsored advertisement,” the singer adds.
Oppo Kenya’s lawyers also responded to Mutoriah, denying liability. They blamed the marketing agency – Aifluence – stating that it retained Foi as its brand influencer.
The “Beta” crooner says the actions of Foi and Oppo Kenya have subjected him to loss and harm. He wants general aggravated damages for copyright infringement by illegal synchronisation and publishing of his intellectual property.
The case will come up for its first mention on January 6, 2025.
In September, the Commercial Court awarded rapper Herbert “Nonini” Nakitare Sh4 million in a similar copyright infringement case. He had sued Content creator Brian Mutinda and Syinix Electronics Ltd for using his song “Wee Kamu” in an online advert without the artiste’s consent.
