This is contained in a statement issued by the Miss Mayree Uket, the Head of Communication, COSON, and made available to newsmen in Abuja.
In suit No FHC/ABJ/C5/503/2012, filed at the Federal High Court, Abuja, the society was also suing Hilton International Manager LLC, an American based company managing Transcorp and hundreds of hotels in several countries across the globe.
According to the statement, the society is asking the court for the award of more than N3 billion against the defendants in unpaid royalties, interest on the unpaid royalties, general, exemplary and aggravated damages for its affiliates and assignors.
It was also praying for perpetual injunction restraining the defendants from unauthorised copying, communication to the public, permission to perform and infringement of the copyright in musical works belonging to its members.
Reacting to the statement, Mr Tony Okoroji, the Chairman of COSON, said that the society had for sometime appealed with the hotel industry but unfortunately it refused to comply and pay royalties for the use of musical copyright works.
He said that the society would not relent from taking action on persons who have decided to use music like their personal property as it was committed to defending the rights of the industry.
Okoroji noted that the 2nd Defendant aware that it was unlawful to infringe the intellectual property rights of creative people anywhere in the world had done nothing to end the abuse of the right of owners of musical works in Nigeria.
He said that this had led to the loss of the country’s revenue as investors were leaving the industry in droves because of the intolerable amount of copyright infringement.
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