Pleading for the Creator: Guinea Launches Its First Copyright Pleading Competition

Conakry (Guinea), November 6, 2026. Some courtrooms judge; others teach how to defend. On Monday, November 2, at Camayenne Plage, Guinea's copyright office — the BGDA — launched the first National Copyright Pleading Competition, under the theme “Pleading for the Creator”: eight universities and law institutions, twenty-four candidates, and one shared conviction — a song, a film, a book are only worth the rights that protect them, and those rights only live if jurists can defend them in court.

A mock trial, for real artists

The concept is part theatre, part law: mock trials, pleaded for real. Each team must prepare both the claimant's and the defence's arguments — the side they will argue is drawn by lot — and the briefs are anonymous. Juries bring together magistrates, lawyers and academics, with no BGDA majority: the competition's independence is written into its rules.

Because behind the robes and the oratorical jousts, the stakes are very concrete. The BGDA's director general, Moussa Fofana, recalled it at the launch with his institution's figures: collected royalties rose from 3 billion Guinean francs in 2023 to 4.25 billion in 2024, then 13 billion in 2025. When rights are defended, the money comes back to creators.

“Behind this logic, there are artists who die in poverty.” — Moussa Fofana, director general of the BGDA, at the competition launch

Eight universities, twenty-four robes

Eight partner entities — universities with a law program and professional law bodies — each appoint three candidates and a supervisor, with at least one woman per team. The dean of the Faculty of Legal and Political Sciences at Université Général Lansana Conté in Sonfonia, Dr Anssoumane Sacko, praised a competition that brings the university closer to the realities of the profession, at a time when creators face illicit reproduction, counterfeiting and unauthorized distribution of their works.

“Copyright is not a favour granted to the creator. It is legal recognition of their intellectual and artistic contribution.” — Dr Anssoumane Sacko, dean of the Faculty of Legal and Political Sciences (UGLC Sonfonia)

Seven weeks, one filmed final

The journey is a full training program. After the internal selection (November 2-6), the 24 candidates meet in Conakry from November 9 to 13 for a national training seminar — ten modules, from copyright fundamentals to pleading techniques. Then come the theoretical rounds, from December 7 to 10, held in public at four Conakry universities, then the semi-finals on December 17.

The grand final takes place on Friday, December 18, 2026 at the Conakry Court of Appeal, in a public, filmed hearing, in the presence of creators and the press. At stake: 50 million Guinean francs shared among the winning teams, and for the six finalist candidates, a three-month internship at the BGDA's Legal and Litigation Department, starting January 2027. Moussa Fofana says it plainly: his ambition is to turn this competition, in time, into an international meeting place for copyright pleading.