Sarasavi publishers ordered to pay Rs 837,500 to author in intellectual property case

Jayantha de Silva

Colombo Commercial High Court Judge Gamini Amerasekara on May 17 awarded Rs. 837,500 as compensation to Dharma S. Samaranayake, plaintiff in an intellectual property case against Sarasavi Publishers the publishers of well-known Chef Publis Silva's book titled 'Hela Ratavata Evum Phihum', a book about local culinary recipes.

Senior Attorney at Law Harischandra Wijetunge was summoned as a witness for the plaint. Two witness for respondent were summoned.

In this matter, the plaintiff claims that she is the author of the book at issue. She has permitted the respondent entity to print the first set of books for publication.

Notwithstanding this the respondent has proceeded with the 6th series publication for which the plaintiff had not given her consent. She had been paid Rs.25,000 as an advance.

By way of an affidavit she had demanded that she be paid royalty but there was no response. Thereby her economic rights had being subject to violation by the respondent.

Apart from that, Publis Silva's role in this regard was to practically test certain recipes.

The respondent claim that the book is the creation of Publis Silva.

Besides the respondent had come to an agreement with him regarding the book. Furthermore, in a pre - publication intimation, Publis Silva had informed the respondent that he is paying the director.

The Court observed that the name Publis Silva had a commercial brand value. Publis Silva had submitted an affidavit and did not appear in court.

Neither have he been summoned as a witness in the matter.

The court is of the view that the author of the book is the plaintiff.