Houma AG Handaka v Alhaji Ballo

Houma AG Handaka v Alhaji Ballo

The Plaintiff, our client is a Malian citizen and the sole licensee of a product labelled ‘Achoura tea’. The tea’s package is labelled with distinguishing artwork and trade dress that is unique to the ‘Achoura’ brand and familiar to ataya tea drinkers in Ghana and over 20 other countries. The Achoura trade dress has been registered with the African Intellectual Property Organisation (OAPI) for more than a decade.

It came to our client’s notice that the Defendant was selling ataya tea with the names ‘Ramadan’ and ‘Ashraf’ using the artwork and trade dress of Achoura.

Our client took action against the Defendant alleging that the Defendant infringed his copyright in the Achoura artwork and diluted the Plaintiff’s goodwill in the market amounting to unfair competition.

The court found that the Defendant had infringed on the Plaintiff’s copyright. The court also found that the Defendant had engaged in unfair competition. The court accordingly awarded our client with damages of GHS100,000.