Ghana's folklore protection laws insufficient to sue Black Panther producers but we can give it a shot – Amanda Clinton

A private legal practitioner and Head of Chambers at Clinton Consultancy, Ms Amanda Akuokor Clinton, has said the copyright laws of Ghana on folklore protection are insufficient to ensure copyright or compliance overseas.

To this end, she said legally, Ghana and for that matter, the National Folklore Board, may not have enough grounds to sue Marvel Studios in the United States of America for the use of kente and other Ghanaian artefacts in their 2018 hit superhero movie, Black Panther.

The movie Black Panther which featured a lot of African artefacts including some from Ghana grossed over $1.3 billion worldwide and broke numerous box office records.

Speaking on the Class Morning Show (CMS) on Class91.3FM on the occasion of World Intellectual Property Day Wednesday, 26 April 2023, Ms Clinton explained that “the copyright laws of Ghana on folklore protection are insufficient to ensure copyright or compliance overseas. And I say this because on the international platform, the World Intellectual Property Organisation, has led the exploring and efforts of protecting traditional cultural expressions through intellectual property protection and it will be good for the national folklore board to push for more international protection.”

She said despite the fact that the laws on Ghana’s folklore protection are insufficient, the Folklore Board can still test the case in court with the hope of getting a compensation because the issue will be of public interest.

“I don’t think our copyright laws on folklore protection are sufficient to ensure compliance overseas but the National Folklore Board could test this by pursuing an action against Marvel. In any case, they might be in the public interest, [so Marvel] will be pressured to make some form of compensation because it’s going to look really bad that ‘you’re not really considering the rights of the country who has such folklore protection and you just used that to make millions of dollars but you couldn’t give something to the board who could use maybe half a million dollars towards their efforts’ so they’ll consider the public interest aspect,” Ms Clinton told show host Koku Lumor.