KN’s Chief Editor, Lincoln Lewis to pay $3M in damages after losing copyright infringement lawsuit

Nigel Williams, the editor-in-chief at the Kaieteur News (KN), and columnist Lincoln Lewis, who were in April 2021 slapped with a copyright infringement lawsuit have lost and have been ordered to pay $3, 002,450 in damages as well as $250,000 in costs.

The lawsuit was filed against them by Village Voice GY Inc., an online news agency where Williams worked as editor-in-chief from June to October 2020. He was also one of the company’s directors, a position he served in up until March 31, 2021.

Village Voice GY Inc., which is located at Friendship Public Road, East Coast Demerara, had sought general and punitive damages in excess of $2M against Williams and Lewis.

It had also asked the High Court to award damages against the duo for copyright infringement and to award more than $1M in damages against Williams for breach of fiduciary duty.

Court documents stated that Morris Wilson is a director, secretary, and sole shareholder of the company which states that it is the owner of artistic work ‘Village Voice with a bullhorn image’ combined with the words “Daily Newspaper Serving Villages Across Guyana”.

After it was incorporated, the company added that it paid for the registration of the domain name www.villagevoicegy.com and created Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter pages and a Gmail account. However, it claimed that between October 2020, and April 2021, Williams conducted business using the company’s logo for which he was not given permission.

According to Village Voice GY Inc., Lewis has admitted that he is part of a group that is responsible for the publication of “The Village Voice News” in print and digitally.

Taking this into consideration, the company contended that Williams and Lewis have infringed on its copyright by issuing a work entitled “Village Voice” and by selling or offering for sale a printed newspaper called “Village Voice News”.

The company argued that since April 4, 2021, the pair has passed off “Village Voice News” as “Village Voice GY” with posts made on villagevoicenews.com where several images are bearing “Village Voice GY”, falsely indicating that they are associated with “Village Voice News”. As such, through its lawyer Teni Housty, the company asked a Judge to declare that Williams and Lewis had infringed the copyright of its artistic work “Village Voice”.

Apart from this, the news agency had also sought an injunction restraining Williams and Lewis, their employees, or agents from advertising, dealing with, copying, or reproducing in any material form selling, advertising for sale, offering for sale, or issuing to the public copies of its artistic work “Village Voice” or any substantial part of it.

Williams, who previously served as editor-in-chief at the State-owned Guyana Chronicle and Lewis, were represented by Attorney-at-Law Nigel Hughes.

The order for damages and costs was made in January of this year by Justice Fidela Corbin-Lincoln after she considered witness statements and submissions by the parties’ lawyers.

If they fail to comply with the terms of the court’s order, they will be held in contempt of court and may be liable to imprisonment or to have their assets confiscated.