Renowned singer Shehzad Roy has sent a legal notice to Coca-Cola and Soho Square for using one of his songs in their ad without his consent.
The singer said, “I made ‘Laga Rahe’ in 2008 to highlight the injustices in Pakistan. I could never have imagined that this same song would become a victim of injustice later on.
In this last decade, I’ve stood up against many social injustices but when my own intellectual property (IP) rights were violated, I was advised by my friends and colleagues not to get into a legal battle with a giant corporation like Coca-Cola. They felt that powerful individuals and organisations in Pakistan get away with illegally occupying people’s material property, so what hope would I have with claiming my intellectual property rights. But such arguments have only motivated me further to take up this case and fight for my rights, so no other artist in Pakistan has to face such blatant intellectual property rights infringement again.” “Soho Square has been engaged by Coca-Cola Export Corporation as its agent for the purpose of advertising, marketing and promotion of Coca-Cola Company’s brand ‘Sprite’. Soho Square approached my team to enter into an agreement in order to use my song ‘Laga Rahe’.”
“Soho Square and my team had exchanged drafts of this agreement but the final contract with Soho Square had not been concluded and signed, owing to the fact that I had to further review and revise a few clauses of the agreement.”
“Despite this, Soho Square and Coca-Cola Company went ahead and developed the advertisement of the brand ‘Sprite’ with my licenced song even though I was still reviewing the agreement.”
