U.S Court Summons Davido Over Allegations of Intellectual Property Theft
Popular Nigerian musician, David Adeleke, aka Davido, has been given a 21-day ultimatum by the United States District Court in Manhattan to respond to allegations of intellectual property theft, filed against him on April 4.
The lawsuit was filed by a group of four Nigerian artistes, Martins Chukwuka Emmanuel, Abel Great Umaru, Kelvin Ayodele Campbell and David Ovhioghena Umaru, who claimed that Davido had stolen their 2022 song “Work” and used it in composing his own soundtrack titled “Strawberry on Ice” in 2024.
Davido was sued along with Emmerson Amidu Bockarie, popularly known as Emmerson, a Sierra Leonean singer, who was featured in the song, Carlos Jenkins, Matthew Quinney, Marques Miles II and Wynn Records, the music agency responsible for publishing and distributing the song.
According to court documents, the plaintiffs shared their song “Work” with the musician in January 2022, suggesting a collaboration. Instead, Davido took the song to Emmerson who allegedly sampled the instrumentals and vocal elements to create his song ‘Strawberry on Ice’ without the owners’ consent.
In an attempt to resolve the dispute amicably, the plaintiffs claimed they contacted Davido, and on March 14 2025 an agreement was reached, whereby the plaintiffs would receive forty-five thousand dollars as a settlement, forty percent royalties for the underlying composition, and twenty percent royalties for the sound recording of “Strawberry on Ice.”
However, Davido did not fulfill the agreement before the agreed deadline of March 24.
The plaintiffs are requesting a court-ordered transfer of forty percent of the compositional copyright and twenty percent of the sound recording copyright of “Strawberry on Ice” to them, along with $150,000 in damages. Additionally, they requested that the court prohibit Davido and the other defendants from future copyright infringement or from taking part in activities that will violate the plaintiffs’ future copyrights.
