Williams, Lewis to pay Village Voice over $3M in copyright infringement case

FORMER Director of Village Voice, Nigel Williams, and local trade unionist, Lincoln Lewis have been ordered by the High Court to pay $3 million in damages, and costs for copyright infringement, violating the copyrights of Village Voice Guyana Inc. and its sole shareholder, Morris Wilson.

Williams and Lewis were accused of using the company’s logo without authorisation, consent or licence.

It was in April 2021, Village Voice Guyana Inc., a newly formed online media house and weekly newspaper, initiated legal proceedings seeking the money, among other orders, against Williams, the first-named defendant, and Lincoln Lewis, the second- named defendant.

Williams was an employee of the company and also a director as of March 31, 2021, when he tendered his resignation, while Lewis was a columnist. On January 23, 2023, the High Court ruled against Williams and Lewis. The company, represented by attorney-at-lawTeni Housty, argued that the actions of the defendants resulted in damage to the company. Several orders were sought from the Court to counter and/or mitigate that damage.

According to the High Court Order, the Defendants were ordered to pay the company damages of $2,450 plus additional damages of $3 million.

The Court further ordered that the defendants pay the claimant costs of $250,000 within 30 days.

The order sought general damages in excess of $1 million, punitive damages in excess of $1 million and a further damages in excess of

$ 1 million against Williams for breach of fiduciary duty.

The defendants are restrained from passing off or attempting to pass off or causing, enabling or assisting others to pass off goods with the claimant’s ‘Village Voice’ logo; any words including the words ‘Village Voice GY,’ such as ‘Village

Voice News’ or a getup similar to that of the Claimant’s trading style containing the words “Village Voice GY’ or any colourable imitation resembling the goods of the claimant.

The defendants were ordered to deliver all of the company’s goods, newspapers, websites, domain names, sign boards, advertisements, circulars, notepaper, business cards, letter heads, stationery, labels, wrappers, photocopies, or other printed matter or digital media, including social media, that may be in their custody or control or their servants and or agents. that can attract investors.

THE Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has finalised the latest update of a toolkit that aims to revolutionize small and middle-sized rural entrepreneurship.

RuralInvest, the methodology developed by the FAO Investment Centre, offers its users a path from theory to practice, to assist entrepreneurs in creating sustainable and bankable business plans.

Based on the FAO team’s decades of experience in the field of rural investments, the methodology and its software have been constantly fine-tuned yielding impressive results. Over the past five years, RuralInvest has supported the growth of more than 1,000 agribusinesses in more than 15 countries, catalyzing an estimated $34 million in investment to date and sup- lected and inputs it into the software, which automatically systematizes the information and brings to life clear and visually effective business plans.

The approach is bottom-up, with ongoing communication between the RuralInvest user and the farmer, who interact and exchange ideas in group sessions using the RuralInvest business plan, with the objective of adding value

In the absence of clear and effective business models, farmers and rural entrepreneurs find it challenging to convince financial institutions and banks to invest, also given that agriculture is often considered a risky investment and its profitability difficult to gauge. Over 80 percent of the world’s food is produced by family farming, yet less than 10 percent of smallholders have access to finance.

The idea at the heart of RuralInvest is to make small and medium-sized entrepreneurs thrive by empowering them, through specially trained intermediaries – that is, platform users - to translate their business ideas and vision into concrete plans porting a new generation of rural enterprises worldwide.

The latest version of the software, offers a user-friendly, multilingual interface, combined with hands-on support, opening to a wider range of users.

How it works

The free toolkit is supported by a brand new software called RIV20, accessed via the RuralInvest website recently updated through close collaboration with the FAO Digitization and Information Technology Division, which enables users to develop professional and quality business plans.

The field technician understands what the farmer’s vision is, learns how and which data need to be col- and substance to the entrepreneur’s vision.

Who can use RuralInvest?

The toolkit is mainly designed for field technicians, extension agents and business plan development consultants.

It also partners with national institutions – universities or entrepreneurship centers - that can train professionals for the use of RuralInvest through a series of free e-learning courses and face-to-face trainings, as well as with national financial institutions, such as banks, that can use RuralInvest as a tool for developing and evaluating business plans. (FAO)