UNDERSTANDING TRADEMARKS, PATENTS & COPYRIGHTS.
Dear Subscriber,
Businesses and Individuals invest time and resources in creating unique inventions, literary and artistic works, designs, symbols, names, images, trade secrets which are referred to as intellectual property. Intellectual property protection is critical to promoting innovation because without such protection businesses and individuals would lose incentive to be creative which would ultimately kill enterprise.
Like in most parts of the world, Nigerian Law ensures the protection of intellectual property with patents, trademarks or copyrights all of which cover different areas. It is paramount for a business owner to understand the different forms of protection offered by the law to protect intellectual assets so as to prevent competitors or anyone else from unauthorized use for their own profit.
Trademark-
A trademark is a symbol or a sign which differentiates the goods and services of one business from another one. Trademark registration legally protects your trademark from use by a competitor. Trademark Registration in Nigeria covers: name, logo, slogan, domain name, shape, colour or sound and this is done at the Commercial Law Department, Ministry of Trade and Investment in Nigeria.
The trademark must be distinctive for the goods and services that you provide, not be deceptive, illegal or immoral and not be similar to existing trademarks. Trademark rights may be used to prevent others from using a confusingly similar mark, but not to prevent others from making the same goods or from selling the same goods or services under a clearly different mark.
The period of protection varies, but a trademark registration in Nigeria can be renewed indefinitely beyond the time limit on payment of additional fees. Trademark protection is enforced by the courts, which in most systems have the authority to block trademark infringement. In a larger sense, trademarks promote initiative and enterprise worldwide by rewarding the owners of trademarks with recognition and financial profit. Trademark Registration in Nigeria also hinders the efforts of unfair competitors, such as counterfeiters, to use similar distinctive signs to market inferior or different products or services.
Patents-
A patent is an exclusive right granted for an invention, which could be a product or a process that provides a new way of doing something, or offers a new technical solution to a problem. It gives the owner the right to prevent others from making, using, importing or selling the invention without permission.
The right conferred by the patent grant excludes others from making, using, offering for sale, or selling the invention in Nigeria. Every patent in Nigeria shall lapse at the end of the twentieth year from the date of the filing of the relevant patent application. A patent shall also lapse if the prescribed annual fees are not duly paid in respect of it, provided that a grace period of six (6) months shall be allowed for the payment of the fees; and if the fees and the prescribed surcharge are paid within that period, the patent shall continue as if the fees had been duly paid.
Copyright-
Copyright is the exclusive right granted by law to an author (i.e., an artist, writer, publisher, musician, performer, photographer, architect, film maker, and sculptor) of certain works to control the doing of some acts in relation to the work.
Copyright protects original creations in the literary and artistic fields e.g. Books, Paintings, Films, Broadcasts etc. The rights which an author or copyright owner enjoys in a work include the right to be acknowledged in any use made of his work and also to prevent any derogatory use; alteration; distortion or mutilation of same (referred to as moral rights). More importantly, he enjoys the right to earn money from his work by determining the condition under which the work may be commercially used by a third party (economic rights).
The author of a literary, artistic or musical work enjoys copyright throughout his lifetime and for 70 years after his death. In the case of films, sound recordings, performances etc., the owner enjoys Copyright for 50 years from the time the work was first published. The work goes to the public domain when the term of protection expires and third parties are allowed free use.
Conclusion
There may be cases when you might consider using more than one form of protection e.g. A marketing campaign for a new product may introduce a new slogan for use with the product, which also appears in advertisements for the product. The advertisement’s text and graphics, as published in a particular vehicle, will be covered by copyright whilst the slogan will be protected by trademark law.
The content of this document is solely for information purposes only and should not in any way be construed as a legal opinion. If you require specific legal advice on Trademark Registration in Nigeria please contact a professional.
MOTIVATIONAL VIDEO
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