Gov't sued over copyright infringement

Renowned Ghanaian political geographer, Professor Raymond Bagulo Bening has sued the Ghana government for infringing on his intellectual property rights.

He alleges that the gov­ernment was illegally using contents of his manuscripts that trace the development of Ghana's international boundaries from 1876 to date in the maritime bound­ary litigation between Ghana and Ivory Coast without his permission.

The Commercial Divi­sion of an Accra High Court is expected to commence hearing of the case on Thursday.

According to the suit, upon request by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Professor Raymond Bagulo Bening made available manuscript titled 'Ghana: National Boundaries and Vic­inal Relations (International Bound­aries) 1876 – 2010’, to the Foreign Affairs Ministry on April 18, 2011.

At the time, Alhaji Mohammed Mumuni was the Minister of Foreign Affairs.

The suit alleged that the Minister caused several copies of the manu­scripts to be made available to some officials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, including the Ghana National Continental Shelf Delineation Project team.

It alleged that other officials used the same in their negotiations without the permission of Professor Bening.

It added that when Prof Bening de­manded the return of the manuscripts, the ministry failed, neglected or re­fused to return the manuscripts to him.

He is, therefore, seeking general damages for infringement of his intel­lectual property rights of the manu­scripts.

Prof Bening is also seeking an order of perpetual injunction restrain­ing government and all other govern­ment officials from continuing to infringe on his intellectual property right in whatever manner.

The applicant is also seeking an order directing the Minister to return the manuscript to him.

Contents of the manuscripts

The manuscript traces the develop­ment of Ghana's international bound­aries from 1876 to 1957, as well as the Gold Coast-Togo boundary of 1914.

It also discusses the problems of colonial boundaries up to 1957.

It traces the development of inter­national boundaries of Ghana and the problems associated with these bound­aries from 1876 to present.

The manuscript also touched on Ghana-Ivory Coast, Ghana-Togo and Ghana-Burkina Faso boundaries and the problems associated with the boundaries from 1876 to date.

It also explains Ghana's territorial sea, maritime boundaries and airspace in relation to Ghana-Ivory Coast boundary.

It discusses the evolution of Ghana's territorial sea boundaries, maritime and airspace from 1874 to present.

There is an interesting chapter on Anglo-French co-operation in West Africa from 1845 to 1957.

There are many maps illustrating the evolution of these boundaries, in­cluding the original map that will be used for the determination of the Ghana-Ivory Coast maritime bound­ary.

On July 12, 1893, the original map of the Ghana-Ivory Coast maritime boundary was defined.