her work. I will refer to the pieces the plaintiff by category and compare them with those
alleged to have been infringed.
Women from the well
Ms. Atal testified that she made an album marked exhibit P5 in 2004 out of recycled paper
showing women coming from the well. It was her testimony that she considered it as her
original work because of the slender body, and the finishing in gold, the black that she uses
and the movement of the people. She further testified that this piece was copied on the
cover of a note book made by the defendant and marked exhibit P6. She further testified
that the comparison to her work lies in the fact that the ladies on the cover of the note book
have the same slender legs, are carrying pots and have the same posture and the black
colour that she uses to show the pride of being an African and the gold finishing.
On a close look at these two pieces the idea was the same but the expressions were
significantly different. The plaintiff’s album had two ladies dressed in orange tops and brown
wrappers whilst the defendants had three ladies carrying pots dressed in purple, black and
red dresses respectively and are of a different size and body shape from the plaintiff’s. I
therefore find that there was a significant variation between the two pieces. There is
therefore no infringement here.
African motif collection
Ms. Atal presented to court her work of a wall hanging which was marked Exhibit P3 and had
several motifs of the tortoise, the lizard, the mask, and the fish. She identified several pieces
from the defendant that she alleges had been copied from her work. One was the calabash
Exhibit P.7 which had a mask with the same gold finishing. The lines in face and dots are
the same and was put against a colourful background and using the same black boundary
like the boundary on the wall hanging. I find that the mask drawn by the defendant is
substantially the original form of Mask done by the plaintiff and or a recognized form derived
from the plaintiffs work. This therefore in my finding is a copied work from the plaintiff.
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