At­tor­ney-at-Law and com­mu­ni­ca­tions spe­cial­ist, Patt Christo­pher, has been ap­point­ed by the board of di­rec­tors of the Copy­right Mu­sic Or­gan­i­sa­tion of Trinidad and To­ba­go (COTT) to serve as the or­gan­i­sa­tion's chief ex­ec­u­tive of­fi­cer. In­cor­po­rat­ed in 1984, COTT's mem­ber­ship in­cludes close to 3,000 song­writ­ers, com­posers, lyri­cists and mu­sic pub­lish­ers.

It is re­spon­si­ble for the col­lec­tion of li­cence fees on be­half of its mem­bers from the users of their works, which range from ca­lyp­so to chut­ney, pan, parang, gospel, rap­so, In­di­an, African, pop, rock and jazz and mu­sic in TV pro­grammes and jin­gles. COTT then dis­trib­utes roy­al­ties to its mem­bers.

Com­ment­ing on her ap­point­ment, Christo­pher said she was de­ter­mined to en­sure COTT re­mained a re­source­ful and dy­nam­ic play­er in the de­liv­ery of an ef­fi­cient and trans­par­ent ser­vice for the col­lec­tive man­age­ment of mu­sic rights, thus con­tribut­ing to the eco­nom­ic ben­e­fit of its mem­bers and af­fil­i­ates.