Felix Duke accuses Pretty Okafor of trademark fraud

fraud

The CIG logo

The CIG logo

By Mateen Badru

The President, Creative Industry Group (CIG), Felix Duke on Wednesday called out Pretty Okafor, a factional leader of Performing Musicians Association of Nigeria PMAN over alleged trademark fraud and impersonation.

Duke in a statement signed by his counsel, Dami Damola-Kolawole, accused Okafor of writing media firms and stakeholders to disregard Felix Duke’s registered CIG.

He further said that he is ready to pursue Okafor’s allegation of “intellectual property theft, passing-off of copyright work, criminal/unlawful conversion of ideas and trademark infringement” in court.

“The statements and allegations made by Pretty Okafor are nothing short of malicious assertions lacking any basis, and made with the intention to slander him,” he said.

According to him, legal steps are already being taken to expose the truth and therefore, justice will prevail.

“It should be noted that Pretty Okafor made claims that Duke was involved in intellectual property theft, criminal/unlawful conversion of ideas and infringement/passing off of trademarks.

“These allegations are not unconnected to ownership of the trademark ‘’CREATIVE INDUSTRY GROUP’’ (CIG) which is under the administration of Duke.

“Okafor had earlier written letters to various persons, institutions, and organisations including Channels television, Lagos State Film and Video Censors Board and Lagos State Honourable Commissioner for Tourism, Arts and Culture, spreading such claims and allegations.

“Duke enjoins all well meaning Nigerians to disregard these assertions as they are baseless and a figment of the imaginations of Pretty Okafor.”

Duke further challenged Okafor to tender the evidence he had for claiming to be the one who registered the CIG trademark.

The CIG noted that the body was registered by him in 2018 while the trademark number Okafor is circulating, is a purported trademark not relating to him or the subject matter of his allegation and which investigation had revealed.

Damola-Kolawole further stated that whilst his client, Duke is open to corporate reasoning, his client respects legal reasoning in factual comprehension and will not tolerate misrepresentation of facts.

When Okafor was contacted, he revealed that Duke was among PMAN’s executives until recently.

“CIG is a registered trademark for PMAN. It is the platform through which we accessed the National Assembly.

“We have written Duke and provided numbers of the patent through CAC and the trademark. We asked him to desist from using the platform

“You can confirm from Ruggedman, Sunny Nneji or Zakky Azi so that you don’t think this is a kind of personal beef.

“This is not about a search, but certificate of NCC patent and all the ideas undet it are PMAN’s products.” He said.

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