Okoroji joins int’l community to honour copyright guru, uchtenhagen in Harare

Okoroji

The Chairman, Copyright Society of Nigeria (COSON), Chief Tony Okoroji was one of the key speakers at a moving event in Harare, the Zimbabwean capital on November 5, at which the celebrated copyright and related rights expert, Dr. Ulrich Uchtenhagen was honoured by the International copyright community.

In his speech at the event held at the headquarters of the African Regional Intellectual Property Organization (ARIPO), Chief Okoroji paid tribute to the dedication

of the Swiss born Uchtenhagen to the success of copyright in Africa, identifying him as a key contributor to the progress presently being made in the development of the collective management system across the continent.

In the words of Chief Okoroji, ‘collective management of copyright would have remained in the doldrums in much of Africa, especially Nigeria, without the road map created by Dr. Uchtenhagen. As long as we continue to fulfill those ideals for which Ulrich Uchtenhagen lived, then he is not dead. He lives on’.

The highlight of the event was the unveiling by Mr Luciano Lavizzari, the Swiss Ambassador to Zimbabwe of a live size bust of the late Uchtehagen who died on December 31, 2003 in a car accident while on an international assignment in Zimbabwe.

Some the speakers at the event attended by copyright collective management experts from around the world, were Mr. Fernando dos Santos, Director-General of ARIPO; Mrs. Tarja Koskinen Olsson, Vice Chair of the Norwegian Copyright Development Association and Mr. Robert Hooijer, former Director-General of the International Confederation of Societies of Authors & Composers (CISAC). Each of the speakers enumerated a long list of systems, processes and developments in the international copyright system which were either initiated by Ulrich Uchtehagen or driven by him.

It will be recalled that Dr. Ulrich Uchtanhagen visited Nigeria in 1991 as a consultant of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). After nine days in the country during which he met with virtually all the key stakeholders in the Nigerian music industry, he prepared a report which in no small measure helped to shape the collective management structure that presently exists in the country.

Chief Tony Okoroji, author of Copyright & the New Millionaires and one of the foremost campaigners for intellectual property rights in Africa is in Zimbabwe as a resource person at the Sub-Regional Public- Private Workshop on Advancing Collective Management in Africa organized by the African Regional Intellectual Property Organization (ARIPO), the Norwegian Copyright Development Association (NORCODE), the International Confederation of Societies of Authors & Composers (CISAC), the International Federation of Reprographic Rights Organizations (IFFRO) and the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI).