Good morning Everyone .

My name is Olaoluwa idowu . I am a lawyer with major Practice experience in Corporate and Entertainment Law .

Over the last couple of years , I have encountered a lot of business owners and start up founders that have faced a lot of avoidable legal issues premised on non registration of their businesses and startups with the proper regulatory bodies in their sectors and lack of proper knowledge of the in-depth intricacies of contractual obligations with investors and customers .

A couple of these businesses and startups lost a huge chunk of money due to this . I was also able to maneuver majority of the cases to avoid loss and enlighten a lot more on how to stay safe and maximize profits especially in a not so friendly business environment called Nigeria which we have found ourselves .

On this thread , I will be sharing my experience and tips on registration of your businesses, registration of your trademarks as a business Entity, important contracts you should have as a business and many more .

I am hopeful (in fact confident ) that business owners and startups will gain a lot of knowledge from this thread .

You can shoot me a mail during the course of the thread -olaoluwaidowu700@gmail.com for clarifications , consultations and legal advise on how to go about some of these procedures .

Thank you and welcome as we journey together .

Hi Idowu

Appreciate the thread

Had no idea an individual like you exist among tech people in this part.

I'm more interested in the area of safe-guarding my one of my intellectual property from being blatantly copied, stolen and or mimicked, as it involves coding a unique type of payment solution that has never before done before. A fintech novelty.

Because of this I'm learning coding myself and would like to be guided as to how one can patent it before launch. I pretty much understand that one cannot request a patent for an idea or a business idea. One can only be granted an exclusive patent right for inventing, a product or a process that provides a new way of doing something, or that which offers a new technical solution to a problem.

My concern is...in Nigeria, does our patent laws exist to genuinely protects the interest of the tech inventor.

Nice! I learnt new stuff. Thanks for sharing.

y3mi:
Hi Idowu

Appreciate the thread

Had no idea an individual like you exist among tech people in this part.

I'm more interested in the area of safe-guarding my one of my intellectual property from being blatantly copied, stolen and or mimicked, as it involves coding a unique type of payment solution that has never before done before. A fintech novelty.

Because of this I'm learning coding myself and would like to be guided as to how one can patent it before launch. I pretty much understand that one cannot request a patent for an idea or a business idea. One can only be granted an exclusive patent right for inventing, a product or a process that provides a new way of doing something, or that which offers a new technical solution to a problem.

My issue is...in Nigeria, does our patent laws exist to genuinely protects the interest of the tech inventor.

Good morning . Just seeing this .

The Patents and Design Act Cap P2 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 2004 , covers for the grant of patent rights to inventors in Nigeria . I am personally aware of a few patented inventions and designs in Nigeria including some of popular fashion designer , Deola Sagoe designs .

As a tech inventor , you can protect your intellectual property rights through copyright and the novelty of what you are working on can also qualify you for “ patents “ depending on how truly unique your idea/invention is and if it meets all other requirements provided under the act .

You can send me a mail via olaoluwaidowu700@gmail.com for more details and enquiries on this .

Please note that Patents geenrally cover physical inventions capable of industrial application. For saoftware generally what you need and what you have is copyright. Copyright protects your software, its appearance and sourcecodes. however you do not need to register a copyright, the recognition is automatic upon creation. the NCC can issue you an acknowlegement upon your application but this does not amount to a title but can help prove your title.

Fabric Designs can be regsitered as registred designss but clothing is another story, you can register it but in court it would be hard to prove novelty........after all what is new under the sun when it comes to clothes. its all 99.9 % recycled to one level or the other.

Never forget your trademarks. Trade marks cover your brand names and Logos and slogans. however trade marks can prove to be a slippery slope due to to rules around registration. generally you cannot register as a trademark anything that describes the quality fo the product or service you apply your trade mark to. Neither can you register what si common or generic to your industry. its a bit more complex than that but to explain here na long thing.

i spent some years as an intellectual property practitioner and I find that a lot of startups tend to make mistaes in that space. Abeg consult lawyer on all such matter particularly IP lawyers.

Synord:


Good morning . Just seeing this .

The Patents and Design Act Cap P2 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 2004 , covers for the grant of patent rights to inventors in Nigeria . I am personally aware of a few patented inventions and designs in Nigeria including some of popular fashion designer , Deola Sagoe designs .

As a tech inventor , you can protect your intellectual property rights through copyright and the novelty of what you are working on can also qualify you for “ patents “ depending on how truly unique your idea/invention is and if it meets all other requirements provided under the act .

You can send me a mail via olaoluwaidowu700@gmail.com for more details and enquiries on this .

Seer the law is one thing the application or enforcement is another. tha laws exist to protect but that protection is not automatic against dubious and desperate people who want to exploit your IP and the goodwill you have in it.

there mere regsitration does not automatically mean that it will not be copied or stolen, this applies in Nigeria and other parts fo the world. . In the event of an infringement on your IP rights you must take action by suing tghe person involved.

IP laws are not designed to make the registration bodies become regulatory bodies that can take positive action to protect. the responsibility lies on the owner to take the teps necessary to protect his IP rights by going to court.

y3mi:
Hi Idowu

Appreciate the thread

Had no idea an individual like you exist among tech people in this part.

I'm more interested in the area of safe-guarding my one of my intellectual property from being blatantly copied, stolen and or mimicked, as it involves coding a unique type of payment solution that has never before done before. A fintech novelty.

Because of this I'm learning coding myself and would like to be guided as to how one can patent it before launch. I pretty much understand that one cannot request a patent for an idea or a business idea. One can only be granted an exclusive patent right for inventing, a product or a process that provides a new way of doing something, or that which offers a new technical solution to a problem.

My issue is...in Nigeria, does our patent laws exist to genuinely protects the interest of the tech inventor.

Synord:


Good morning . Just seeing this .

The Patents and Design Act Cap P2 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 2004 , covers for the grant of patent rights to inventors in Nigeria . I am personally aware of a few patented inventions and designs in Nigeria including some of popular fashion designer , Deola Sagoe designs .

As a tech inventor , you can protect your intellectual property rights through copyright and the novelty of what you are working on can also qualify you for “ patents “ depending on how truly unique your idea/invention is and if it meets all other requirements provided under the act .

You can send me a mail via olaoluwaidowu700@gmail.com for more details and enquiries on this .

Thank you for the prompt reply. I actually sent you an email, right after I made that post.

I get your point and I can say I understand the basic difference between Copyright, Trademark and Patents. Could you just for my sake and those of others, expatiate on the core difference between the aforementioned three especially as it relates with my concerned which I will be elaborating to the contributor 'Patented' below:

Patented:
...

As an informed contributor to this thread, I thank you for sharing your insight.

Patented:
IP laws are not designed to make the registration bodies become regulatory bodies that can take positive action to protect. the responsibility lies on the owner to take the the necessary to protect his IP rights by going to court.

I get your point that IP laws don't exist to deterring poachers from infringing or mimicking what is proprietarily ascribed to an owner, or an inventor (as it would be in my regards), but given the kind of country we are, where rules and laws can be flouted and circumvented, my question is, and one predicated on taking up measure if push comes to shove, would I be empowered by these laws to file a lawsuit against any whom, in anyway, borrowed, copied, mimicked or imitates the novelty core upon which my IP property is based on functioning in the Fintech space, I wouldn't want an idea that took me almost half a decade to conceived, hone and perfected be flagrantly replicated without permission.

Patented:
See the law is one thing the application or enforcement is another. the laws exist to protect but that protection is not automatic against dubious and desperate people who want to exploit your IP and the goodwill you have in it.

Take for instance, someone comes up with a Sport Betting formula that's not only innovative but a game-changer to how various sports matches are wagered online, a truly original and novel mechanism that attracts more users to it, and later on, after a year or more, many of the established old platforms began to cleverly incorporate that exact formula into theirs, and while some did it cleverly, others simply just imitates it, impressing the emerging new ones who simply just plagiarized it, now how does the original creator/inventor of this be protected from having his/her formula lifted (any ignorant may argue it's simply just coding anyone can do, if so why don't we have a multiple of Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and SnapChat, ofcourse there may be similar but patent and copyright laws protect the core idea/concepts that makes them unique) In Nigeria, I have noticed that everyone tend to copy each other, and the whole bunch just keep doing the exact same thing, originally started by someone, as it can be observed not just in the Fintech space but in other field too, like in the e-Commerce industry.

Patented:
there mere registration does not automatically mean that it will not be copied or stolen, this applies in Nigeria and other parts of the world. . In the event of an infringement on your IP rights you must take action by suing the person involved.

Can you please provide me with any real life events involving parties where one's intellectual property (patented or copyrighted) was knowingly/unknowingly infringed upon and there was justice prevail in favor of the infringed (and not the infringer).

Thanks.

Simply put, you can sue. The matter is to be taken to the Federal High Court. It will take time but if you have a good case you can get judgement. but having a good case starts from your idea stage. I cant give general advice in this regard. It is subjective. However even without registration it is possible to still get judgment. it will just be harder

y3mi:

As an informed contributor to this thread, I thank you for sharing your insight.

IP laws are not designed to make the registration bodies become regulatory bodies that can take positive action to protect. the responsibility lies on the owner to take the the necessary to protect his IP rights by going to court.

I get your point that IP laws don't exist to deterring poachers from infringing or mimicking what is proprietarily ascribed to an owner, or an inventor (as it would be in my regards), but given the kind of country we are, where rules and laws can be flouted and circumvented, my question is, and one predicated on taking up measure if push comes to shove, would I be empowered by these laws to file a lawsuit against any whom, in anyway, borrowed, copied, mimicked or imitates the novelty core upon which my IP property is based on functioning in the Fintech space, I wouldn't want an idea that took me almost half a decade to conceived, hone and perfected be flagrantly replicated.

it appears i did not see your complete response in my initial response.

the nature of the formula goes a long way in determining what kind of registration it would require. However the novelty of the formula is subject to proof in court. if your merely combined old processes together to achive the same result it may not be deemed novel. But like i said it is highly subjective and I cannot give comprehensive advise without more details , which you cannot put here obviously.

As for live case, to type am go hard abeg. Work Calls. but you will find mroe of trade mark cases that were successfuly prosecuted.

y3mi:

As an informed contributor to this thread, I thank you for sharing your insight.


I get your point that IP laws don't exist to deterring poachers from infringing or mimicking what is proprietarily ascribed to an owner, or an inventor (as it would be in my regards), but given the kind of country we are, where rules and laws can be flouted and circumvented, my question is, and one predicated on taking up measure if push comes to shove, would I be empowered by these laws to file a lawsuit against any whom, in anyway, borrowed, copied, mimicked or imitates the novelty core upon which my IP property is based on functioning in the Fintech space, I wouldn't want an idea that took me almost half a decade to conceived, hone and perfected be flagrantly replicated without permission.


Take for instance, someone comes up with a Sport Betting formula that's not only innovative but a game-changer to how various sports matches are wagered online, a truly original and novel mechanism that attracts more users to it, and later on, after a year or more, many of the established old platforms began to cleverly incorporate that exact formula into theirs, and while some did it cleverly, others simply just imitates it, impressing the emerging new ones who simply just plagiarized it, now how does the original creator/inventor of this be protected from having his/her formula lifted (any ignorant may argue it's simply just coding anyone can do, if so why don't we have a multiple of Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and SnapChat, ofcourse there may be similar but patent and copyright laws protect the core idea/concepts that makes them unique) In Nigeria, I have noticed that everyone tend to copy each other, and the whole bunch just keep doing the exact same thing, originally started by someone, as it can be observed not just in the Fintech space but in other field too, like in the e-Commerce industry.


Can you please provide me with any real life events involving parties where one's intellectual property (patented or copyrighted) was knowingly/unknowingly infringed upon and there was justice prevail in favor of the infringed (and not the infringer).

Thanks.

One of the very cogent questions every business owner or entrepreneur should ask is the protection the law offers their business and how they can avoid the murky waters of regulatory bodies in their businesses or venture ?

The FIRST QUESTION and issue we will be tackling and discussing on this thread is the issue of Registration .

Registration under the relevant laws !!

This is one conversation that i really want to go on.

For A business to be recognized as a legal entity in Nigeria and for such a business to sue and be sued , own property and have access to loans and facilities from recognized bodies , such business must be registered .

The regulatory body that is tasked with the duty of registering businesses in Nigeria is the Corporate Affairs commission of Nigeria (CAC)

. One may ask , is it compulsory I register my business ? I do not need to register my business as I am doing well and nothing will happen to me ?

The importance of this very first step to business excellence and growth cannot be overemphasized and I will be breaking things down about this importance on this thread

A lot of people ask “ I am already making money from my business and cashing out without any disturbance , do I really need to register my business ?

I pray ignorance will not be the end of us . A friend lost a deal of over 3 million naira in April due to lack of due diligence and having proper records that a registered business will ordinarily have .

I will be evaluating and talking about the top and cogent reasons why your business needs to be registered .

I will learn alot in this thread

The benefits of incorporation and registering your business are briefly examined below

Major benefits of Registration of your business or company

bilities, and contract agreements





1) Monopoly to Your Business Name

One of the advantages of registering your business name is to give you a certain uniqueness, and also a monopoly. Apart from that, when you register your business with CAC it provides you with legal and exclusive rights to your business name. That means you have to register your business with a name that no one has, and will ever use; as a certificate of incorporation will be issued to you, which will serve as a legal document that will enable you to operate with your business name.

2) Gives you Credibility with Your Customers

There is a lack of trust for most businesses by many Nigerians, because of the high rate of fraud. But when you register your business name, it gives you credibility with your potential customers as well as with the existing ones. Suppose you are willing to register your company name. In that case, it is usually perceived as strong signs of responsibility and trustworthiness as your prospective clients know that they can sue or take up matters arising with the law.

3) Brand and Reputation Upgrade : Also, registering your company enhances your business’s image, credibility and overall perception of your business. This can play a part in improving your future business dealings with third parties, as many businesses will only hire or engage with registered companies rather than with individuals.

It is a great way to build your business’s reputation, being on the Government’s records confirms your legal existence, which may make your client more comfortable transacting with your business.

5) Gaining Access to Loans

Registering your business gives you credibility with banks and financial institutions because when you apply for business loans, you’re going to have to prove that you’re a business. And documentation needed from these banks and investors before you are granted access to a loan will include seeing your business registration certificate along with other application requirements.

Your business registration with the Corporate Affairs Commission would serve as a condition precedent for extending credit to your business.

6) Attract Investors to Your Business

As a business owner, you would like to expand your business reach, and your ability to attract investors and raise money for your business will revolve around how legal your business is.

Investors are likely to invest in a registered company that is recognised with the government rather than an unregistered business that has no formal structure in place. If your business is registered, you can raise money by equity financing, which involves selling shares in your business to prospective shareholders, angel investors or venture capitalists.

7) Ensures Business Continuity

When your business has its own legal identity, it affords its perpetual succession and enables continuity of such business. This is because a registered business will continue to be in existence especially when the business has a well laid out structure; even when the owner is dead or may not be able to run the business anymore. This means your business has an unlimited life span; the business’s existence will only cease if it is formally wound up by order of the court.

8 ) Run a Customized Bank Account

A business with a CAC Registration can run a customised bank account portal with any bank of your choice. Anyone who wishes to transact any business with you will be certain of your genuineness. Operating a business bank account can also be a way you can separate personal activities from business activities. And, it is more professional to give your clients a corporate bank name for payment instead of your personal name.

9) Can Hire Employees Legally

When your business is registered, affords you the ability to employ staff legally. You gain access to hire and recruit quality and skilled employees easily from job recruitment agencies and other online platforms. You can even request for NYSC members to work at your company when registered.

10) Tax Benefits

As a registered business won’t have to pay companies tax, instead you will be accustomed to paying Personal Income Tax. The implication of this in a Federal State like Nigeria is that if you have a Director of a company, you pay your company income tax to the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), and you pay your personal income tax to the relevant State Inland Revenue Service (in Lagos this is the LIRS).

Most benefits and expenses are taxable, but in a registered company in Nigeria, you could legally offset certain costs that would have been taxable as benefits in kind under personal income tax.


11) Limited Liability Protection

A business that is incorporated is deemed a separate entity. You are protected, and you are not personally held for certain liabilities.

12) Gain Benefits Deemed Fit for SMEs

When you register your business name, your business gets the opportunity of expansion. These come through the various business incentives made only available to registered Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) by the Federal Government.

The importance of registering your business can’t be overemphasized. Not only does it grant your business legitimacy, but the law also protects you. You can also enjoy the maximum operational business benefits and gain access to funding.

Register your business today