Aloka Andrew Morgan Paul (PW2). For the defendant Ann Abels Kiruta (DW1), Henk Jenker
(DW2) and Vincent Kiganda (DW3) testified.
Issue 1:
whether the plaintiff is the author of the various artistic works and
owner of the copy rights there in, if any
Counsel for the plaintiff submitted that a copyright is conferred by law under section 4(1) of
the Copyright Act cap 215 on every work eligible for copyright. He submitted that the
requirements of section 3(2) (a) and the first schedule of the Copyright Act were fulfilled and
that the plaintiff’s artistic work in question is eligible for copyright since it is of original
character and sufficient effort was expended by the plaintiff on making the work, a fact he
submitted that was not denied by the defendant during her evidence.
It was counsel for the plaintiff’s submission that Stella Atal led evidence showing her learning
and background as an artist. She referred to a text entitled, “A short history of African
Art,” by Werner Gillion (marked exhibit P.2) with specific emphasis given to pages 76, 77,
80, 205 and 208 as an illustration of applying effort and skill to give an artistic expression of
original character to images found in that book. She testified that the mask illustrated in that
book (Exhibit P.2) was without colour. However she changed the shapes therein and gave
them her own interpretation or artistic understanding to bring out origin artistic work with
expression. She further exhibited various sketch books [marked Exhibit P.4 (1) and (2)]
which she used to illustrate and express how she had developed her ideas. Counsel for the
plaintiff further submitted that Stella Atal went into detail to explain how she created her
original works long before the defendant’s works. He submitted that it is evidently clear that
when one compares the plaintiff’s items in issue as against the imitations of the defendant
that it would leave no doubt in that person’s mind that the defendant’s imitations are
identically similar to the plaintiff’s original works. Counsel for the plaintiff further made
reference to the testimony of Henk Jenker an artist who appeared for the defence but who
testified that the plaintiff’s work is specifically recognizable and described her work as
abstract with elongated features and that she uses a lot of gold. It was counsel for the
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