Davido Given 21 Days to Respond to Intellectual Property Theft Lawsuit in U.S. Court
The United States District Court for the Southern District of New York has given Nigerian singer David Adeleke, popularly known as Davido, 21 days to appear before the court in Manhattan to respond to allegations of intellectual property theft.
According to legal filings obtained by Peoples Gazette, the lawsuit was initiated by four Nigerian artists—Martins Chukwuka Emmanuel, Abel Great Umaru, Kelvin Ayodele Campbell, and David Ovhioghena Umaru. They accuse Davido of unlawfully using elements of their 2022 song Work to create his 2024 track Strawberry on Ice.
The lawsuit also names Emmerson Amidu Bockarie (professionally known as Emmerson), who featured on Strawberry on Ice, Carlos Jenkins, Matthew Quinney, Marques Miles II, and Wynn Records, the label responsible for publishing and distributing the song.
According to the plaintiffs, the dispute originated in January 2022, when they shared a Work demo with Davido in hopes of a potential collaboration. At the time, they were seeking to break into the music industry. However, they allege that instead of pursuing a collaboration, Davido passed the song to Emmerson, who allegedly sampled both the instrumental and vocal components without permission to produce Strawberry on Ice.
To resolve the matter, the plaintiffs engaged with Davido and reportedly reached a settlement agreement on March 14, 2025. The terms included a $45,000 payment from Davido, along with 40% of the royalties from the song’s composition and 20% from the sound recording. However, Davido allegedly failed to meet these terms, missing the agreed-upon payment deadline of March 24.
Consequently, the plaintiffs filed a formal lawsuit on April 4, 2025, in New York, seeking a court declaration that Davido and his co-defendants infringed upon their intellectual property rights. They are also demanding $150,000 in damages, along with the legal transfer of 40% of the compositional copyright and 20% of the sound recording copyright for Strawberry on Ice.
Additionally, the plaintiffs are asking the court to issue an injunction barring the defendants from further infringing on their copyrights or taking actions that might violate their future works.
