Nairobi Map Services Limited v. Airtel Networking Kenya Limited,Z. K. Advertising Limited & The Sound & Picture Works Limited

JUDGMENT OF THE COURT

1. This appeal arises from a judgment of the High Court (Ogola, J.) delivered on 26^th April 2016 dismissing the appellant?s suit for infringement of copyright.

Background

2. In the course of the evening of 29^th August 2009, James Mwaura Wamuhiu, the chief cartographer at Nairobi Map Services Limited, the appellant, was watching television when „a commercial?, an advertisement, promoting the 1^st respondent, was aired on the NTV channel. The advertisement showed the1^st respondent?s countrywide coverage of its mobile network. Wamuhiu noticed that the advertisement contained the “Kenya Administrative Map”, a copyright publication of the appellant “hanging on the wall of a room and then the map appeared in large size on the screen .” He observed that the map was used in the advertisement “as a prop to show the towns and areas of Kenya that they [the 1^st respondent] are present by using pins” and that, “the map was filmed very closely such that the symbols and the colour…