1.Business Mission to Taiwan
January, 16th – 22nd, 2010
2. Nigeria – India BIF
February, 7th – 13th, 2010
3. Nigeria – Japan
April 10th – 17th, 2010
4. Nigeria – Turkey BIF
May, 2010
5. Nigeria – Taiwan BIF
June, 2010
6. Nigeria – China BIF
June, 2010
7. Nigeria – Brazil BIF
July, 2010
8. Nigeria – Iran BIF
August, 2010
9. Nigeria – Singapore BIF
October, 2010
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Friday, December 25, 2009
Patent and Designs Act
Patents
The word “patent” denotes a grant of letters acknowledging a right or monopoly in respect of an invention. When a patent is granted, the “Letters Patent” are delivered to the patentee, who is the person entered on the Register of Patents as the proprietor or grantee. A patentee is thereby granted a right in law to prevent others from making, using or dealing in his invention whether by sale, importation or hire. A patent for an invention does not confer upon a patentee any right to manufacture, which he does not already hold. What the “Letters Patent” confer is the right to exclude others from the commercial exploitation of a particular invention.
The actual procedure for application for “Letters Patent” is quite simple and straightforward. The applicant (assisted by his/its agent - usually a solicitor in Nigeria) is obliged to complete some Statutory Forms, which may be obtained from the Patents and Trademarks Registry, and to return the same accompanied by documents relating to the invention. The Application Form and relevant supporting documents are thereafter referred to an “examiner” who investigates the novelty of the invention claimed and establishes whether or not an earlier claim had been made on it. The examiner's report is not binding on the Registrar but only assists him in arriving at a decision. If the request for a patent is accepted, colour, is an industrial design if it is intended by the creator to be utilised as a model or pattern to be multiplied by industrial process and is not intended solely to obtain a technical result. Like patents and trade marks, the right of registration of an individual design is vested in the statutory creator, that is, the person who, whether or not he is the true creator, is the first to file or validly claim a priority for an application for registration of the design, unless the creator was acting on behalf of another person for good consideration in which case that other person is treated as the proprietor.
The generally accepted view is that a mere importer of a foreign design is not its creator for this purpose, though it is not clear whether a mere importer may not be a proprietor by acquisition. Registration of an industrial design confers upon the registered owner the right to preclude any other person from reproducing the design in a manufactured product; or else, in importing, selling or utilising the design for commercial purposes. Reproducing the design in any miniature way is also prohibited by law. The protection provided by the Nigerian law is effective in the first instance for 5 years from the date of application for registration and two subsequent periods of 5-year renewals making a total of 15 years.
“Letters Patent” are granted to the applicant or joint-applicants and sealed with the seal of the Registrar of Patents upon payment of the prescribed fees.
Industrial Designs
The word “design” as used in this context means or refers to features of shape, configuration, pattern or ornament applied to an article by any industrial process or means, being features which in the finished article appear to and are judged solely by the eye, but does not include a method or principle of construction or features of shape or configuration which the article made in that shape or configuration has to perform.
The law in Nigeria as regards designs now goes further to provide that any combination of lines or colours or both and any three dimensional form, whether or not associated with Copyright Act
The Copyright Act
Promulgated in 1988 makes provisions for the definition, protection, transfer, penalty for infringement of the copyright in literary works, musical works, artistic works, cinematograph films, sound recordings, broadcast and other ancillary matters. In theory, a copyright registration prevents the copying or reproduction of physical material existing in the fields of literature and the arts. Its objective is to protect the writer or artist from the unlawful exploitation of their creation but does not give a monopoly to the reproduction of ideas or to any particular form of words or design.
The word “patent” denotes a grant of letters acknowledging a right or monopoly in respect of an invention. When a patent is granted, the “Letters Patent” are delivered to the patentee, who is the person entered on the Register of Patents as the proprietor or grantee. A patentee is thereby granted a right in law to prevent others from making, using or dealing in his invention whether by sale, importation or hire. A patent for an invention does not confer upon a patentee any right to manufacture, which he does not already hold. What the “Letters Patent” confer is the right to exclude others from the commercial exploitation of a particular invention.
The actual procedure for application for “Letters Patent” is quite simple and straightforward. The applicant (assisted by his/its agent - usually a solicitor in Nigeria) is obliged to complete some Statutory Forms, which may be obtained from the Patents and Trademarks Registry, and to return the same accompanied by documents relating to the invention. The Application Form and relevant supporting documents are thereafter referred to an “examiner” who investigates the novelty of the invention claimed and establishes whether or not an earlier claim had been made on it. The examiner's report is not binding on the Registrar but only assists him in arriving at a decision. If the request for a patent is accepted, colour, is an industrial design if it is intended by the creator to be utilised as a model or pattern to be multiplied by industrial process and is not intended solely to obtain a technical result. Like patents and trade marks, the right of registration of an individual design is vested in the statutory creator, that is, the person who, whether or not he is the true creator, is the first to file or validly claim a priority for an application for registration of the design, unless the creator was acting on behalf of another person for good consideration in which case that other person is treated as the proprietor.
The generally accepted view is that a mere importer of a foreign design is not its creator for this purpose, though it is not clear whether a mere importer may not be a proprietor by acquisition. Registration of an industrial design confers upon the registered owner the right to preclude any other person from reproducing the design in a manufactured product; or else, in importing, selling or utilising the design for commercial purposes. Reproducing the design in any miniature way is also prohibited by law. The protection provided by the Nigerian law is effective in the first instance for 5 years from the date of application for registration and two subsequent periods of 5-year renewals making a total of 15 years.
“Letters Patent” are granted to the applicant or joint-applicants and sealed with the seal of the Registrar of Patents upon payment of the prescribed fees.
Industrial Designs
The word “design” as used in this context means or refers to features of shape, configuration, pattern or ornament applied to an article by any industrial process or means, being features which in the finished article appear to and are judged solely by the eye, but does not include a method or principle of construction or features of shape or configuration which the article made in that shape or configuration has to perform.
The law in Nigeria as regards designs now goes further to provide that any combination of lines or colours or both and any three dimensional form, whether or not associated with Copyright Act
The Copyright Act
Promulgated in 1988 makes provisions for the definition, protection, transfer, penalty for infringement of the copyright in literary works, musical works, artistic works, cinematograph films, sound recordings, broadcast and other ancillary matters. In theory, a copyright registration prevents the copying or reproduction of physical material existing in the fields of literature and the arts. Its objective is to protect the writer or artist from the unlawful exploitation of their creation but does not give a monopoly to the reproduction of ideas or to any particular form of words or design.
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