Intellectual Property 101

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3
You will hear about
1. Protecting your business ideas.

2. Managing your business information &
data.
3. What to do when IP rights are
infringed.
4. Licensing & Incorporation conditions.
5. Protecting your stake in a Partnership.
Remodeling your Business
Intellectual Property 101 for your business
BY
CHINASA UWANNA
SENIOR ASSOCIATE, INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY, TECHNOLOGY, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

BANWO & IGHODALO
Overview
▪ What is Intellectual Property (“IP”)?

▪ Types of IP rights
▪ Regulation of IP rights in Nigeria
▪ Mode of Protection/ Procedure for Registration
▪ Recap
▪ Summary of IP Lawyer’s work
▪ Questions/ Comments
What is Intellectual Property?
o Legal rights which result from intellectual activity in the

industrial, scientific, literary and artistic fields.
o Intangible creations or assets of a business such as the
business name, logo, content, creative ideas or original
creations produced by an individual or group.
o IP law aims at safeguarding creators and other producers of
intellectual goods and services by granting them certain time-
limited rights to control the use made of those productions.
Those rights do not apply to the physical object in which the
creation may be embodied but instead to the intellectual
creation as such.
Types of IP rights
• Trademark – protects the name,

logo, slogan etc.
• Patent – protects inventions and
processes
• Design – protects shapes of
products, models, patterns
• Copyright – protects jingles,
artworks, software/apps etc.
• Trade Secrets – protect sensitive
information which give a business
competitive edge in the market
place
Trademarks
❖ A trademark is a word, phrase, or design that distinguishes the
source of the goods of one business from its competitors.
Businesses use symbols, designs, logos, and catchphrases as
part of their marketing strategy and identity.
❖ Trademarks are registered for an initial term of 7 years, with

subsequent renewal terms of 14 years. Unlike copyrights,
trademarks do not carry an expiration date, they must however
be continuously renewed to ensure they exist in perpetuity.
Patents
❖ A patent is a right to exclude others from making, using, offering for sale, selling or importing an
invention.
❖ To ensure that your invention is patentable, it must meet three requirements stated in section 1(1)
of the Nigeria’s Patents and Designs Act;
(i) new;
(ii) results from an inventive activity; and
(iii) capable of industrial application;
Copyright
❖ Copyright protects original works of

authorship including literary,
dramatic, musical, and artistic works,
such as poetry, novels/brochures,
movies/adverts, songs, computer
software, and architecture.
❖ Copyrights expire 70 years after the
death of the creator, for literary
works.
Trade Secret
❖ According to the World Intellectual Property
Organization (“WIPO”), for information to qualify
as trade secrets, it must be:
❖ commercially valuable because it is secret,
❖ be known only to a limited group of persons,
and
❖ be subject to reasonable steps taken by the
rightful holder of the information to keep it
secret, including the use of confidentiality
agreements for business partners and
employees.
Regulation of IP Rights in Nigeria
o Trade Marks:
❖ Trade Marks Act, Cap T13, LFN 2004;
❖ The Paris Convention
o Patents and Industrial Designs:
❖ Patents and Designs Act, Cap P2, LFN 2004;
❖ The Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT)
o Copyright
❖ The Copyright Acts, Cap C28, LFN 2004;
❖ International agreements on Copyright:
• The Berne Convention 1886;
• Rome Convention;
• Trade Related Aspects Of Intellectual Property Rights [TRIPS].

Mode of Protection/ Procedure for Registration
TRADEMARKS: Trademarks/ Service marks include logos, devices, symbols,
slogans etc. or any combination of the foregoing, used to identify the source of goods
or services and to distinguish one commercial enterprise or business from another.
Conditions for registrability:
❖ inherently adapted to distinguish, and capable of distinguishing;
❖ must contain or consist of at least one of the following essential particulars:
• name of a company, individual, or firm, represented in a special or particular
manner;
• the signature of the applicant or a predecessor-in-title;
o Duration
❖ Initial period of seven (7) years renewable for consecutive period of fourteen (14) years
each.
o Required Documents
❖ Trade Marks Application Form 2
❖ Power of Attorney;
❖ Particulars of the applicant
❖ Clear representation of the mark from which bromide prints will be made (an electronic format is
acceptable).
❖ Class and description of goods for which the trademark is to be registered.
PATENTS: A Patent is a right granted by the Government to an inventor of a process
or method that is new, useful, and not obvious, or for a new use of a known process,
machine, or composition of matter or material. The right to a Patent entitles the inventor
to prevent all others, not just imitators but even independent devisers of the same idea
form using the invention for the duration of the patent.
o Conditions for registrability:-
❖ if it is new, results from inventive activity and is capable of industrial application;
or
❖ if it constitutes an improvement upon a patented invention and also is new,
results from inventive activity and is capable of industrial application.
o Exclusions from Patentability
❖ plant or animal varieties, or essentially biological processes for the production of
plants or animals (other than microbiological processes and their products);
❖ inventions the publication or exploitation of which would be contrary to public
order or morality
❖ Principles and discoveries of a scientific nature
o Outline of the registration process
❖ Application – on the relevant form, payment of filing fees
❖ Acknowledgement: Notice of Acknowledgement indicates filing date and temporary number
❖ Examination: to confirm that it satisfies documentary requirements
❖ Registration: valid for an initial period of 20 years from the date of application; renewable
annually within that period.
o Duration
❖ Expire at the end of the 20th year from the date of filing
❖ Renewal fees are paid annually or else the patent shall lapse
Required Documents
❖ Patent Application Form 1A (Non - convention) and Form 1B (Convention),
❖ Details of Applicant,
❖ Specification and claims, in duplicate;
❖ Documents evidencing assignment (where the applicant for registration is not the true inventor of the
patent),;
❖ Where applicable, a declaration signed by the true inventor requesting that he be mentioned as such in
the patent and giving his name and address;
❖ Certified true copy (C.T.C) of the priority documents (applicable only where priority of a foreign patent
application/registration is being claimed
DESIGNS: A design is any three dimensional form capable of
reproduction by industrial means.
o Conditions for registrability:-
❖ it is new;
❖ it is not contrary to public order or morality
o Duration
❖ 5 years renewable only for two (2) consecutive periods of five (5)
years each

❖ The procedure for the registration of designs is similar to that of
trademarks.
o Required Documents
❖ Design Application Form 1A (Non - convention) and Form 2 (Convention), Form 3
❖ Details of Applicant,
❖ 3 samples of identical representations or specimens of the design or a photographic representation of
the design;
❖ Statement of Novelty;
❖ Drawings (if any);
❖ Certified true copies of priority documents (required only where the applicant is claiming priority of a
foreign registration application)
COPYRIGHT: Copyright is simply the right of the creator of a literary, musical or artistic
work (including dramatic works, broadcasts and sound recordings) to prevent others
from copying or reproducing that person’s creative work. Copyright automatically vest
in the creator of a qualifying work upon the creation of the qualifying work, without
the need for registration or other such formality, provided the work is original (that is,
created without copying) and fixed in a tangible medium from which it can be
perceived or otherwise communicated.
Duration
❖ Literary, musical and artistic work (except photographs): 70 years after
death of author, or after the date the work was published (in the case of body
corporate).
❖ Cinematograph films and photographs: 50 years after the year in which the
work was first published.
❖ Sound recording: 50 years after the year in which the recording was first made.
❖ Broadcasts: 50 years after the year in which the broadcasting took place.
o Outline of the NCC Notification Process

❖ Compile all required documents/ information
• Authorization of Agent,
• Particulars of the applicant,
• Abstract of the work for which copyright is claimed,
• 3 detailed copies of the work (that is, the full text)
❖ Pay the requisite fees
❖ Submit all documents to the NCC
❖ Where all the required documents are submitted timeously and requisite fees are paid, the certificate
of notification of copyright should issue within 1 – 2 months.
❖ Search - Optional
❖ Application – Filing of Trademarks Form 2 and other statutory documents and payment of fees
❖ Acknowledgement – Notice of Acknowledgement issued upon receipt of application. Notice
indicates Temporary Filing Number & Date of filing
❖ Examination – To determine distinctiveness, deceptiveness, scandalous nature, prohibited by law.
Notice of Acceptance or Refusal issued
❖ Publication – Trade Marks Journal. Objection to the application must be filed within 2 months of
publication.
❖ Registration – where no Notice of Opposition is filed or opposition determined in favour of applicant
o Conditions for registrability (contd.)

❖ an invented word or invented words;
❖ a word or words having no direct reference to the character or quality of the goods, and not being
according to its ordinary signification a geographical name or a surname;
❖ any other distinctive mark.
o Classification of Goods & Services

❖ Nice International Classification of goods and services containing 34 classes of goods and 11
classes of services has been adopted by Nigeria
Recap
Summary of IP Lawyer’s work
• IP Registration and Maintenance (Brand Management)
• Watch Services
• Review of IP Agreements (Licensing and technology transfer;
Franchise; Distribution agreements; Merchandising and Sale
• NOTAP registration
• Product Registration – SON and NAFDAC
• Anti-Counterfeiting/ Anti-Piracy
• Legal Advisory
THANK YOU!
[email protected]
www.banwo-ighodalo.com
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TECHBIZ

You will hear about

1. Protecting your business ideas.

SENIOR ASSOCIATE, INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY, TECHNOLOGY, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

▪ What is Intellectual Property (“IP”)?

o Legal rights which result from intellectual activity in the

• Trademark – protects the name,

❖ Trademarks are registered for an initial term of 7 years, with

❖ Copyright protects original works of

• Trade Related Aspects Of Intellectual Property Rights [TRIPS].

o Outline of the registration process

o Outline of the NCC Notification Process

o Conditions for registrability (contd.)

o Classification of Goods & Services

Techpreneurship: From Lab to Market

1. Invent and launch promising technology to the market

Eko Innovation Centre

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