Sabinus is not taking things lying down as he has issued a 14-day ultimatum to two popular food brands to pay him for using his intellectual property or face court actions.
Popular Nigerian comedian, skit maker and content creator, Chukwuemeka Emmanuel popularly referred to as Oga Sabinus has threatened to sue popular brand, peak milk over the alleged usage of his trademarked phrase, “Something hooge“.
Sabinus, 27, also threatened legal action against UAC Food Ltd, a company that produces gala sausage for using his brand picture and other intellectual products to make adverts and promotions for the product.
A pre-suit notice dated 27 May 2022 which was signed by his lead counsel, Mr Stanley Alieke, the comedian demanded from Peak Milk the payment of N500m for the alleged unauthorised use of his intellectual property and another N500m for damages for the “emotional, physical, psychological and mental trauma our client has suffered for the trademark theft and the infringement of his intellectual rights property”.
According to the comedian, a company belonging to Peak Milk, Friesland Food Wamco Nigerian PLC, used his trademarked slogan “Something Hooge” for the advert and promotion of their product, Peak Milk.
He revealed that the advert was made on Peak Milk Nigeria’s verified Instagram page (peak_milk) on 24th of May 2022. The comedian stated that the said slogan was trademarked on 26 November 2021 with the FILE NINIBER: NG/TM/O/2021/48316.
In a pre-litigation notice to UAC Food Ltd which is dated 25 May 2022, Sabinus also demanded the payment of N100m “for the use of the picture which is the average fee our client charges for his picture to be used for adverts and promotions”.
Oga Sabinus also revealed that UAC Food made a post on its verified Instagram handle (galasausage_roll) on 23 May 2022 with his “picture”. He revealed that the post which was his cartoon picture was captioned, “the way I calculate everything in my life”.
“The post gathered massive traffic, and engagements and attracted huge followership to your page which only happened because the picture of our client was used for the promotion and advert,” the notice read.
The comedian, who was recently recognised by the Africa Movies Viewers’ Choice Award (AMVCA) as the Best Online Content Creator of the year 2022, gave both companies 14 working days to meet his demands or meet him in court.
Below is the infringing image by Gala and Peak:
