Fiest

 

INTRODUCTION

Intellectual Property (IP) law deals with protecting properties formed by the ingenuity of persons. By nature, IP protects an intangible asset, this is not to say works that are IP protected are necessarily intangible, however, what IP laws seek to protect is actually the creativity that has gone into producing a particular thing and, therefore, permits only the creator or creators to enjoy the commercial benefit that accrues from such work.

IP is a worldwide concern that cuts across every sphere of human activity. This makes it a very broad topic, it covers the whole nine yards when it comes to commerce and economy, it also has emerging areas like; Geographical Indications, Images Rights, Traditional Knowledge and more. Here we take a discourse on how it operates in Nigeria.

RELEVANT IP LAWS IN NIGERIA

1. Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria: Perhaps the best place to start will be from the master of all laws in Nigeria which is the constitution; firstly, it gives the national assembly power to make laws that concern IP via the exclusive list see items 13 and 43. Also, it provides the sole jurisdiction for the Federal High Court to hear IP cases in section 251(1)(f) CFRN.
2. Copyright Act: This law covers 6 types of works via section 1(1) of the Copyright Act; they include; Literary works, Musical works, Artistic works, Cinematograph Films, Sound recordings and Broadcast.
3. Trademark Act: This law protects; marks, brand names, and special designs that an organization makes use of in the course of its business.
4. Patent Act: This law seeks to protect inventions; conversely section 1 of the Patent and Design Act states what can receive the backing of a patent as something birthed by inventive activity and goes further to explain what an invention is in section 2.
5. Industrial Design: Just like Patent, the Patents and Design Act regulates Industrial design matters. It is defined in section 12 as; ‘Any combination of lines or colours or both, and any three-dimensional form, whether or not associated with colours, is an industrial design, if it is intended by the creator to be used as a model or pattern to be multiplied by industrial process and is not intended solely to obtain a technical result’.

 

Other relevant statutes include; The rules of the federal high court, the Cybercrime Act etc. Furthermore, some treaties are relevant to our IP corpus juris in Nigeria for instance the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) agreement, the Berne Convention and others.

CONCLUSION

The implementation of Nigeria’s IP policy is very poor due to many factors, but one important factor to note is that the aforementioned laws are outdated and obsolete, while these laws might help citizens to an extent, the bulk of advancement made in technology and society is not yet covered by the Acts. There is a need to repeal and update these IP laws. 

Solomon Faith is a 400 Level Law Cadet in the Nigeria Police Academy, he can be reached via LinkedIn:    https://www.linkedin.com/in/solomon-faith