Intellectual Property Protection Services
in Nigeria
We offer a range of services for intellectual property (IP) Protection in Nigeria. Our services provide you with a fast, efficient, and cost-effective route for protecting your inventions, trademarks, or works.
Why use SplashDict for
Intellectual Property Protcetion Service?
Intellectual property (IP) rights protect genuine business assets that can be vital to your products or services or the success and profitability of your business. There are many advantages to securing your intellectual property rights.
Your intellectual property is a valuable intangible asset that should be protected to enhance your competitive advantage in the marketplace. IP is protected in law by, for example, patents, designs, copyright, and trademarks, which enable people to earn recognition or financial benefit from what they invent or create.
Our dedicated IP team will take over the administrative burden to ensure your rights are registered, managed, and protected.
IP can generate income for your business through licensing, sale, or commercialization of protected products or services. This can, in turn, improve your market share or raise your profits.
In case of sale, merger, or acquisition, having registered and protected IP assets can raise the value of your business.
Ideas on their own have little value. However, IP can help you to turn ideas into commercially successful products and services.
Licensing your patents or copyright, for example, can lead to a steady stream of royalties and additional income that can boost your business's bottom line.
IP can increase your competitiveness in export markets. You can use brands and designs to market goods and services abroad, seek franchising agreements with overseas companies, or export your patented products.
You can monetize your IP assets through sale, licensing, or using them as collateral for debt financing. As well as this, you can use your IP as an advantage when applying for public or government funding, eg grants, subsidies, or loans.
We'll be performing our duties effectively and accurately, so you don’t have to worry that you’re doing anything wrong, reducing the risk of financial penalties.
Strong IP helps consumers to make the best choice regarding the reliability, safety, and effectiveness of their product purchases.
Enforced IP rights ensure the product's authenticity and high quality that consumers expect from the producers.
Ease of mind and confidence that consumers demand and markets rely on, can be promoted with the help of IP rights.
We store and organize all of your documents in an easily accessible format, helping you avoid any late or incorrectly-filed documentation.
As an entrepreneur or small business owner, you don’t have time to waste. We free up your time at a cost-effective rate so you can focus on what matters most: your core business principles.
IP is essential in creating an image for your business. Think trademarks, logos, or the design of your products. IP can help you differentiate your products and services in the market and promote them to your customers.
Get started in minutes.
Tell us about your I.P
Our easy online form can be completed in just 5 minutes or less.
We'll process Application
Based on the information you provide, We will process and file the documents.
Receive your documents
Once your incorporation documents have been approved by the Federal Ministry, you will receive your completed business entity package by e-mail/mail.
Our Intellectual Property Protection Services
Access a full suite of Business I.P support solutions to best suit your needs.
TradeMark Registration
A trademark is a company’s persona and identity in the marketplace. It can be any device, brand, heading, label, ticket, name, signature, word, letter, color marks, numeral, or a combination of these things that identifies your goods or services.
Revenue can be earned by commercially exploiting the trademark in the form of assignment, license, franchising, or merchandising. In a trademark assignment, a complete transfer of ownership from the owner to the other party takes place. In the case of a trademark license, partial ownership is transferred to the other party while the owner enjoys ownership rights along with revenue.
Franchising is when a party who is the owner, gives another party the right to market a product or service using the trademark and logo of their business. Trademark Merchandising is when a well-known trademark is allowed to be printed or used on goods that are different from its primary identification, for example, t-shirts with coca-cola print on them.
SplashDict can help you register your trademark with the Commercial Law Department, Ministry of Trade and Investment in Nigeria.
What can be registered as a Trademark?
A name like Nike: MTN, 7Up. A logo like the Apple logo, the Shell logo. A slogan like "Just do it", "E Choke". etc.
Patent Registration
A patent holder has a monopoly right over the patent, it helps in refraining others from making, selling, or using the patented invention for a specific period and helps keep competitors at bay.
A patent is an exclusive right granted to an inventor for his/her invention, which may be a product or a process that provides a new way of doing something or offers a new technical solution to a problem.
A patent can be commercially exploited by way of assignment or license. Assignment of Patents means the sale of a patent. It is the whole and complete transfer of ownership from the patent owner to any other party based on an assignment agreement.
Whereas, a patent license allows the other party to use the patent in a controlled manner and helps the patent owner to earn revenue while keeping the ownership rights of the patent safe with himself.
We Prepare and file Patent applications with the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade, and Investment.
What can be registered as a Patent?
Patents protect novel inventions or discoveries like pharmaceutical drugs, complex machinery or advanced software.
Copyright Registration
Copyright is a legal term used to describe the rights that creators have over their literary and artistic works.
The rights which a copyright owner enjoys in a work include the right to be acknowledged in any use made of this work and also to prevent any derogatory use; alteration; distortion or mutilation of same (referred to as moral rights).
More importantly, they enjoy the right to earn money from their works by determining the condition under which the work may be commercially used by a third party (economic rights).
You can create confidently, knowing your work is protected against infringement. We register Protected works under the Nigerian Copyright Commission to provide evidence of the possible date of creation of the work and other facts stated in the application form in the event of a dispute.
What can be registered as a Copyright?
Works covered by copyright range from books, music, paintings, sculpture, and films, to computer programs, databases, advertisements, maps, and technical drawings.
Do You need a Intellectual Property Protection Services in Nigeria?
WE CAN HELP.
We do Prompt Trademark, Patent, and Copyright registration in Nigeria. Contact us to know more.
Check out our resource center to learn more about Business Admin Services.
We’ve got the expert insights your business needs.
Frequently asked
questions.
Copyrights protect original creative works, including books, movies, songs, paintings, photos, web content, and choreography. Trademarks protect business and product names, slogans, and logos to help customers tell brands apart.
To complete the Registration of Your Company in Nigeria, you'll have to provide the following details upon Submission;
- Proposed Name of the Company (2 Names).
- The objectives and nature of business of the company.
- Address of the company.
- The share capital and shareholding formula among shareholders.
- Details of all Shareholder(s), Director(s) and Secretary. Details such as; names, occupation, residential address, email address, mobile phone number and means of identification (National Identification Card, Data Page of International Passport, Driver’s Licence or Voter’s Card).
Any device, brand, heading, label, ticket, name, signature, word, letter, colour marks, numeral, or any combination thereof may be registered as a trademark. Three dimensional marks are also eligible for trade mark protection.
- A name like Nike, MTN, 7Up.
- A logo like the Apple logo, the Shell logo.
- A slogan like "Just do it", "E Choke".
Deceptive or scandalous marks or designs or marks that are likely to cause confusion are not eligible for trademark protection. Names of chemical substances and geographical names in their ordinary signification are also ineligible for trademark protection.
- A song, book, film, or other original creative work. Get copyright instead.
- An invention is like a technical process, the machine, manufactured good, or chemical formula. Look into a patent.
It usually takes between 12–18 months to register a trademark in Nigeria where there are no oppositions. So, you should begin registration immediately. Here is a breakdown of the timeframe;
- Acknowledgment letter: 24 hours from submission
- Acceptance Letter: 4-6 weeks from submission
- Publication in Trademark Journal: 32 weeks from Acceptance Letter stage
- Grant of Certificate: 12 weeks from publication
Registration of a trademark takes effect from the date the application for the registration of the trademark was filed.
When a Trademark Registration is granted, a certificate of registration bearing the Registered trademark number is issued. A trademark registration grants the trademark owner rights to institute an action at the Federal High Court for infringement of the trademark, the right to the exclusive use of the registered trademark and right to stop a third party from using a similar or identical trademark in the course of commerce or business.
Registration of a trade mark is effective for an initial term of (seven) 7 years from the date of filing. Thereafter, the trade mark is renewed perpetually every (fourteen) 14 years.
The trademark registration is classified into 45 different classes of goods and services in accordance with the Nice international system of classification. It is important for every applicant to understand the classes the registering trademark belongs to or closely align with.
However, a trademark may be registered in more than one class where the applicant is seeking protection in both classes. And where applicant seeking protection in multiple classes, separate filing fees must be paid for each of the classes. The 45 trademark classes in Nigeria are listed below:
The absolute grounds for refusal of Trademark Registration in Nigeria are as follows:
- Where the trade mark is bereft of distinctive character.
- Where a trade mark is contrary to law, or is immoral, deceptive or scandalous.
- Where a trade mark is likely to deceive or cause confusion.
- Where a trade mark contains names of chemical substances, use of the Coat of Arms of Nigeria, the National Flag of Nigeria, use of any emblem or title such as President or Governor without appropriate authorisation.
- Where the trade mark contains words such as “patent”, “Patented”, Registered”, “Registered Design”, or “Copyright”.
- Where the trade mark contains words such as “Red Cross” or “Geneva Cross” and representations of the Geneva and other crosses in red or of the Swiss Federal Cross in white on a red ground or in a silver tone on a red ground or such representations in a similar colour or colours.
The relative grounds for refusal of Trademark Registration in Nigeria are as follows:
- A trade mark application is filed by a person other than the actual owner.
- A trade mark is sought to be registered in bad faith.
- The trade mark sought to be registered was fraudulently obtained.
- The trade mark sought to be registered is identical or confusingly similar to an already registered trade mark.
Copyrights protect original creative works, including books, movies, songs, paintings, photos, web content, and choreography. Trademarks protect business and product names, slogans, and logos to help customers tell brands apart.
Copyrights protect original creative works, including books, movies, songs, paintings, photos, web content, and choreography. Trademarks protect business and product names, slogans, and logos to help customers tell brands apart.
Anyone can use the ™ symbol on their trademark, but it doesn't protect it. The ® symbol means your mark is registered with the Nigerian Trade and Design Commission, giving you all the legal protections that come with it.
Copyright (or author’s right) is the right that creators have over their literary, artistic, and certain scientific works once those have been created and fixed on a tangible medium.
Copyright is the exclusive right granted by a statute to an author (i.e., an artist, writer, publisher, musician, performer, photographer, architect, filmmaker, 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 which are fixed in medium from which they can be reproduced, or otherwise communicated. Examples of works protected include;
- Literary works (novels, stories, poetical works, plays, computer programmes, letters, encyclopedias, law reports, etc).
- Artistic works ( paintings, drawings, maps, plans, woodcuts, works of architecture, sculpture, craftsmanship, etc).
- Musical works (musical notations and compositions);
- films;
- Sound recordings; and
- Broadcasts
Titles, ideas, concepts, procedures, methods or things of similar nature are not protected by Copyright.
To complete the Registration of Your Company in Nigeria, you'll have to provide the following details upon Submission;
- Proposed Name of the Company (2 Names).
- The objectives and nature of business of the company.
- Address of the company.
- The share capital and shareholding formula among shareholders.
- Details of all Shareholder(s), Director(s) and Secretary. Details such as; names, occupation, residential address, email address, mobile phone number and means of identification (National Identification Card, Data Page of International Passport, Driver’s Licence or Voter’s Card).
Copyright ownership is first vested in the author, with the exception of work made by or under the direction or control of the Government, a State authority or a prescribed International body.
The creator of a copyright work, usually referred to as the “author” of the work owns the copyright in the work in the first instance. However, the author is at liberty to transfer his rights to a third party. In such a case, the person who has obtained the right by transfer or other legal means becomes the owner of copyright.
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, they enjoy the right to earn money from their works by determining the condition under which the work may be commercially used by a third party (economic rights).
An author can prohibit or authorize the following acts;
- The reproduction of the work in various forms such as printed publication, photocopying or making a recording in any media;
- The public performance of work such as staging a play in a theatre;
- The recording of work in the form of compact disks, cassettes, videotapes, etc;
- The broadcasting of the work by radio, cable or satellite;
- The translation of the work into other languages or its adaptation such as from a novel to a screenplay;
- The distribution of the work commercially by way of sales, hiring or rental.
Not all works can be copyrighted. Section 1 of the Act provides that the following listed works qualify for Copyright;
- Literary works;
- Musical works;
- Artistic works;
- Cinematograph films;
- Sound recordings and;
- Broadcast.
The above-listed works will not be eligible to be copyrighted except the following occurs;
- Sufficient effort was expended in making the work to give it its original character;
- The work has been fixed in a definite medium of expression that is now known or to be developed later from which it can be perceived either directly or with the aid of any machine;
- At the time the work was done, it was intended by the author to be used as a model or pattern to be multiplied by an industrial process.
Moreover, work will not also be eligible to be copyrighted by reason that the making of the work or the doing of any act about the work involved an infringement of copyright in some other work.
The rights enjoyed by the owner of Copyright are limited. The duration of copyright protection depends on the category of work.
Copyright in literary, musical, and artistic works (excluding photographs) lasts for seventy years from the end of the year in which the author dies, and where the author is a government or a body corporate, 70 years after the end of the year in which the work was first published.
Cinematograph films and photographs are protected by copyright for fifty years after the end of the year in which the work was first published. Copyright protection for broadcasts and sound recordings lasts for 50 years after the end of the year in which the broadcast or the recording was first published.
The work goes to the public domain when the term of protection expires and third parties are allowed free use.
Section 20 of the Act provides for the following criminal offences in relation to copyright infringement:
(a) making or causing to be made for sale, hire, or for the purposes of trade or business any infringing copy of a work in which copyright subsists;
(b) importing or causing to be imported into Nigeria a copy of any work which if it had been made in Nigeria would be an infringing copy;
(c) making, causing to be made, or having in one’s possession, any plate, master tape, machine, equipment or contrivance for the purposes of making any infringing copy of any such work;
(d) selling or letting for hire or for the purposes of trade or business, exposing or offering for sale or hire any infringing copy of any work in which copyright subsists;
(e) distributing for the purposes of trade or business any infringing copy of any such work;
(f) having in one’s possession, other than for private or domestic use, any infringing copy of any such work;
(g) having in his possession, selling, letting for hire or distribution for the purposes of trade or business; or
(h) exposing or offering for sale or hire any copy of a work which, if it had been made in Nigeria, would be an infringing copy.
The main reason to register a patent is to ensure that the inventor is able to exclusively commercially exploit an invention, it must be patented. The rights to a patent are vested in the “Statutory Inventor” i.e. the first person to file and register the patent.
Patents are granted for the invention of products or processes. However, for it to be patentable, the invention;
- Must be new;
- Must have an inventive step that is not obvious to someone with knowledge and experience in the subject;
- Must be capable of being made or used in some kind of industry and not be, a scientific or mathematical discovery, theory or method, a literary, dramatic, musical or artistic work, a way of performing a mental act, playing a game or doing business, the presentation of information, or some computer programs, an animal or plant variety, a method of medical treatment or diagnosis;
- And must not be against public policy or morality.
The Patent and Design Act (the "Act") provides the criteria for registering a patent in Nigeria as follows:
- Novel Invention;
The invention must be new and have an inventive step that is not obvious to someone with knowledge and experience in the subject. The invention must also have never been known, used or made public. An invention is also patentable if it constitutes an improvement upon a patented invention.
An inventor is usually advised to keep his/her invention secret until the invention has been registered else such inventor plays with the risk of invalidating his own patent by prior publication.
- Capable of Industrial Application;
The invention must be capable of being made or used in some kind of industry. Industry in this context is in its broadest form and it means "Anything distinct from being purely intellectual".
This suggests that the invention goes beyond just an idea, a scientific theory, an aesthetic creation, a computer program but must take the practical form of an apparatus, product or a device.
- Public Policy and Morality;
The invention must not be against public policy or morality as this constitutes a ground on which an application may be rejected by the Patents Registry.
- One Invention per Registration;
The application to be made to the Registry must relate to only one invention but may include or have in connection with that invention, claims for a number of products or for a number of manufacturing processes or applications of those products.
- Full Description;
In addition to the provisions of Section 1 of the Act, the Registry prescribes that the application must clearly and fully disclose the details of the invention, the processes involved and all that it entails.
- A patent gives the patent holder the right to stop others from using the registered invention or to choose to permit the use by other persons of such invention under agreed terms.
- A patent also gives the patent holder the right to bring a legal action against anyone who infringes on the registered invention and to make a claim for damages.
- The Court may also in appropriate circumstances grant injunctive orders restraining the offending party from further infringement on the rights of the patent holder.
- A patent gives the patent holder the right to grant others a license to use such invention, or sell it, as with any asset. This can provide an important source of revenue for your business.
- A trade mark application is filed by a person other than the actual owner.
- A trade mark is sought to be registered in bad faith.
- The trade mark sought to be registered was fraudulently obtained.
- The trade mark sought to be registered is identical or confusingly similar to an already registered trade mark.
- Patent Drafting: 1-2 weeks
- Acknowledgment letter: 24 hours from submission
- Acceptance Letter: 6-8 weeks from submission
- Grant of Certificate: 6 weeks from Acceptance
Copyrights protect original creative works, including books, movies, songs, paintings, photos, web content, and choreography. Trademarks protect business and product names, slogans, and logos to help customers tell brands apart.
