26 July

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Remedies for Trademark Infringement in Nigeria: Injunctions, Damages and Criminal Liability

in Class Notes, Exam Prep, IP Law, Study Resources

A global consumer goods company discovers that a manufacturer in Aba is producing thousands of units of a soap bar using packaging that closely imitates its registered trademark, colour scheme, and brand name. The infringing goods are already moving through distribution channels toward retailers across the south-east. If the company waits for a full trial before seeking relief, the market damage will be done and largely irreversible. If it goes to court immediately, it can try to stop the infringement before most of the damage occurs. And if criminal prosecution is also available, it may be possible to deter future...

26 July

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Passing Off in Nigeria: The Unregistered Mark’s Protection and the Jurisdiction Controversy

Posted by Kolawole Adebowale

in Class Notes, Exam Preparation, IP Law, Study Resources

A small-batch pepper sauce producer in Port Harcourt spends four years building a loyal customer base around her brand's distinctive green-and-white label with the handwritten-style logo. She has never registered the mark. A distributor in Warri begins selling a similar product using almost identical packaging in the same markets, trading on the reputation she has built. She has no registered trademark to sue on. Does she have any legal remedy? The answer is yes, through the common law action for passing off, one of the oldest forms of intellectual property protection in the common law world and one that exists entirely...

09 July

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Trademark Infringement in Nigeria: How Courts Assess Confusion, Similarity and Counterfeiting

Posted by Kolawole Adebowale

in Class Notes, Educational Articles, IP Law

Walk into a roadside pharmacy in Oshodi and you might find a box labelled "Panadon" sitting next to genuine "Panadol" on the shelf. The packaging uses the same blue-and-white colour scheme. The font is nearly identical. A tired, unwell shopper grabbing medication quickly may not notice the difference. In a market where counterfeit pharmaceuticals have killed people, the question of whether these two marks are confusingly similar is not an abstract legal exercise. It is a public safety question that trademark law must answer. Understanding how Nigerian courts determine whether trademark infringement has occurred, how they assess whether one mark is...

09 July

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How to Register a Trademark in Nigeria: Parts A and B of the Register

Posted by Kolawole Adebowale

in Class Notes, Educational Articles, IP Law, Study Resources

Imagine you have spent three years building a small pepper sauce brand in Port Harcourt. Your distinctive label, your invented brand name, and the loyal customer base you have cultivated across the Niger Delta represent real commercial value. One morning you discover that a Lagos distributor has started selling a very similar product under a nearly identical name, and is already advertising it to retailers. You want to sue. Then your lawyer asks the single most important procedural question in Nigerian trademark law: is your mark registered? If the answer is no, section 3 of the Trade Marks Act immediately closes...

04 July

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Trademarks in Nigeria: Definition, Nature and Functions Under the Trade Marks Act

Posted by Kolawole Adebowale

in Class Notes, IP Law

Walk into any major supermarket in Lagos or Kano and the shelves tell a story of trademark law in action. The red-and-white Indomie packaging, the distinctive Coca-Cola bottle shape, the Dangote logo on bags of cement, the green MTN branding across every billboard on the expressway: each of these is a trademark, each is a registered piece of intellectual property, and each represents a business decision to invest in a brand identity that the law will protect against imitation. Now step outside and walk past the roadside market, where counterfeit Indomie noodles in packaging barely distinguishable from the original are...

04 July

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Copyright in Computer Programs and Digital Works in Nigeria

Posted by Kolawole Adebowale

in Case Analysis, IP Law

Walk into any computer repair shop in Alaba International Market or along Computer Village in Ikeja and you will almost certainly find Windows and Microsoft Office being installed on customer machines from bootleg discs or USB drives, for a small fee. Visit any Nigerian university campus and you will find students using pirated versions of SPSS, AutoCAD, and Adobe Creative Suite without a second thought. The Nigerian software market, by most credible estimates, has historically had software piracy rates among the highest in the world, a situation that persisted for decades in part because the old copyright framework provided inadequate...

04 July

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Remedies for Copyright Infringement in Nigeria: Civil and Criminal Action

Posted by Kolawole Adebowale

in Class Notes, IP Law

In 2020, the Court of Appeal in Lagos Division upheld an award of N5.4 billion against Multichoice Nigeria for using copyrighted musical works across its DSTV platform without licence or payment. It is, to date, the largest published copyright damages award in Nigerian legal history, and it did not happen because Multichoice was a careless or unsophisticated operator. It happened because the company failed to ensure it held valid licences for the works it was broadcasting, and because the rights holder had the means and the determination to pursue the full range of remedies the law makes available. Understanding remedies is...

04 July

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Copyright Infringement in Nigeria: Elements, Defences and Burden of Proof

Posted by Kolawole Adebowale

in Class Notes, IP Law

An Afrobeats producer samples a two-bar percussion loop from a 1974 highlife recording and builds an entirely new track around it. A fashion blogger reposts a photographer's image on Instagram with a different watermark and no credit. A printing shop reproduces fifty copies of a Nigerian textbook for a group of university students. In each scenario someone has used a copyrighted work without permission. The question this article answers is what the copyright owner must prove to succeed in an infringement action, what the defendant can argue in response, and how the burden of proof operates in proceedings before the...

27 June

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Assignment and Licensing of Copyright in Nigeria

Posted by Kolawole Adebowale

in Class Notes, IP Law

Assignment and licensing are the mechanisms by which copyright moves from the hands of the person who created it into the commercial marketplace. Getting these transactions right is not a concern only for lawyers advising the music and film industries. It is a practical skill for anyone who creates, commissions, or publishes copyrighted work in Nigeria, and it is a core examination topic because the rules governing how copyright is transferred are precise, technically demanding, and often misapplied in practice. 1. Copyright as Movable Property: The Constitutional Foundation Section 30(1) of the Copyright Act 2022 provides that, for the purposes of Chapter...

27 June

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Posted by Kolawole Adebowale

in Class Notes, IP Law

Fair dealing is the most practically significant exception to copyright protection in Nigerian law. It is where the exclusive rights of copyright owners give way to the public interest in access, education, criticism, and creativity. And it is the area where the Copyright Act 2022 makes its single most far-reaching change from the law that preceded it: a deliberate shift from a narrow, closed list of permitted purposes to an open, flexible standard capable of evolving with technology and social practice. 1. What Fair Dealing Is and Why It Exists Fair dealing is a statutory defence to an act that would otherwise...

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