₦airaland Forum

The Mavin Record Act took to Instagram to share his newly acquired toy just few moments after rounding up A Cancer Awareness Walk in the Capital city of Abuja.

The AMA Awards are aimed at honouring and promoting excellence in the African movie industry, Africans in the diaspora as well as uniting the Africans from across the globe through arts and culture.

The AMA awards are widely considered to be Africa’s most important film even and the most prestigious film award for people of African descent.

Here are the awards up for grabs:

Best Short Film

Best Documentary

Best Diaspora Feature

Best Diaspora Documentary

Best Animation

Achievement In Production Design

Achievement In Costume Design

Achievement In Make-Up

Achievement In Soundtrack

Achievement in Visual Effects

Achievement In Sound

Achievement In Cinematography

Achievement In Editing

Best Film by an African Living Abroad

Best Actor in a Leading Role

Best Actress In A Leading Role

Best First Feature Film by a Director

Best Diaspora Short Film

Achievement In Screenplay

Best Nigerian Film

Best Film in an African Language

Most Promising Actor

Best Child Actor

Best Actor In A Supporting Role

Best Actress In A Supporting Role

Best Director

Best Film

Submit your film here.

http://www.popafrica.com/2017/01/the-2017-africa-movie-academy-awards-organizers-are-now-accepting-submissions/

[url=https://www.youtube.com/embed/tlvf7acStiA]/url]

Uche Aguh is one of the most promising new Nigerian filmmakers, and with the release of his impressive concept trailer for Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Americanah, one can confidently boast about his proficiency in Filmmaking. The talented doctor-turned-director came up with this trailer as

Although Adichie’s novel is already on course to be produced by Brad Pitt’s production company, Plan B (12 Years a Slave), with Lupita Nyong’o and David Oyelowo set to star in it, the film is still looking to attach a writer and director – and those are the roles Uche Aguh is hoping to prove he can fill with this concept trailer.

Americanah tells the story of young love torn apart by migration and the constant search for greener pastures. It is a deeply moving and profound story that challenges the idea of race, class, nationality, and socio-economic status.

Its protagonist, Ifemelu, is a brilliant young girl uprooted from her home in Lagos, Nigeria and transplanted, in North America. Her identity becomes questionable, when she suddenly realizes that she’s now labelled a Black-American.

http://www.popafrica.com/2017/01/checkout-the-concept-trailer-for-chimamanda-adichies-americanah-by-uche-aguh/

Any Cheap Bulk SMS provider in here? please email me @ ReadRotimi1@gmail.com
Include your rates for reseller and the unit price you sell to reseller.

Nice point there too...

True!

Leadership Clinic

Dear Great Leader!

The US election has come and gone. I’m sure you learnt a few things in the process. I want to share with you a few lessons I learnt from Donald Trump’s victory

• First, they hate you, second, they cajole you, and third they admire you if you don’t give up.

• There are three Levels of Actions – Retreat action, Normal action and Massive action. Trump took massive action and now is the US President elect. Massive action gets the job done in leadership

• Stand for what you believe and influence willing followership. Dare to be “you(nique)”

• Power used to be in the domain of the aristocrats. Now, it has shifted to the people. Don’t dwell in the power arena. Be in the people arena.

• Success principles are universal. It is your duty to adapt them to succeed in career, business or politics. Trump has successfully extended his winning principles to politics. Great leaders know how best to adapt winning strategies to achieve organizational goals.

Remember, if anything is humanly possible, consider it within your reach.



Love you,

Ifeanyi Onyemere

Lifestyle & Leadership Consultant

Emerging Doctor of Strategic Leadership

Like my page: www.facebook.com/drifeanyi1

Follow: www.twitter.com/drifeanyi1

Follow: www.instagram.com/drifeanyi1

readrotimi1@gmail.com

xprezboy:
kudos 2 d Northern army for wasting the wasters with arms and armunitions purchased by gej

Northern Army or Nigerian Army?

Saw this on TechCabal and i thought i should share, its really insightfl

Protecting your startup from intellectual property theft: An interview with Angela Adebayo, Managing Attorney of Silvax Legal

A few months ago, Inventa International, a global intellectual property (IP) firm that offers services to international companies doing business in Africa, partnered with Lagos-based law firm, Silvax Legal, to offer affordable IP services to Nigerians.

With this partnership, they hope that more Nigerian businesses, especially the small ones, can protect that brands and ideas, seeing as the price barrier has been let down a little. But the fact is, not many people even know what IP law is or the areas it covers. This means that there are a lot of companies – startups included – that are not properly protected from having their brands or ideas stolen.

Bankole caught up with Angela Adebayo, the Managing Attorney of Silvax Legal/Inventa International Nigeria, and got her to talk about the basics of IP protection, how it relates to startups and the services her company offers to their clients.

TechCabal: You mentioned that there are three types of intellectual property. Please expatiate?

Angela: I think it’s important to first note that the three major types of intellectual property are territorial. First we have trademarks, which is something like your company logo, or if you have a brand, then it’s the name of your brand. It’s your brand identity, as it were.

Then there’s copyright. Now, there are different types of copyright protection. There’s literary, artistic, and musical works. I think your question was relating more to literary copyright – how far a written work is protected. Copyright is the only type of intellectual property that is actually inherent. That is, if you write something and you publish it, then you own the copyright in that ownership. For everything else, you actually have to file for protection for it.

Patents are the third type of intellectual property. They are for when you want to release inventions. Those are the three major types of intellectual property.



TechCabal: What remedy does a startup have against another startup that banks on its popularity? I’ll give a scenario – when TechCabal became interesting and created a brand, we started noticing people would do stuff like “JobsCabal” “ArtCabal” “BusinessCabal”. All those things never quite caught on, but in theory, if one of these were actually by a savvy entrepreneur who could grow the business, that would be very problematic because people keep associating those things with us.

In that case, what happens is that, even if you’re not suffering any detriment in that it does not directly affect your business, it makes it look like there’s an association between your business and their business. And that is them trading off the goodwill of your business, because yours is the one that’s established. It’s the one that’s well-known, and people will think, “Oh, look, TechCabal has moved into fashion, so we should use them.” That, in its purest sense, is actually trademark infringement, if the words “Tech Cabal” are registered as a trademark.

If they’re not, then you have a common law claim for passing off. The requirements are pretty much the same, it’s just a lot easier if you’re registered as a trademark, because you have evidence. That means you would have a claim for trademark infringement and you would actually be able to stop them from being able to use it, because you would take them to court.



TechCabal: How long do these things take before I can get an injunction to restrain someone from infringing on my copyright?

Angela: I think it’s important not to focus on what happens when there’s a problem. You should focus on how best to protect yourself right at the beginning. Because a lot of people start businesses, especially startups, and because they are registered at the CAC, they think that they’re fine and they’re covered.

If you cover yourself on all fronts and get all of these things sorted right from the beginning, the remedies available to you would be a lot more accessible than if you didn’t do these things at the beginning.

Usually what you should do when you start your business is register your trademark, brand your website and write at the bottom, “this is the property of so and so.” The mistake that I find that a lot of people make is they think because it’s not mandatory, it’s not important. But it totally is.

A real life example is the Coca-Cola bottle. The Coca-Cola bottle has been registered since the company started like a hundred years ago. Now, it is absolutely impossible for any other company to decide they’re going to make a bottle in that shape. Their brand protection is so strong, and it’s so widely known, that it’s protects them totally and that is all trademark law.



TechCabal: Obviously, prevention is better than cure, but what is the cost of prevention? Most startups are bootstrapped, and don’t necessarily have structure, talk less money. So on the scale of preference, these things, like legal advice, tend to rank low. Now, if a few knew it would cost a certain amount and saw it as an investment…

Angela: Like I said earlier, because it’s not a mandatory requirement, people don’t think it’s important. What I think is interesting or special about my company is that we do really want to bring it to everybody.

In this country, IP protection is under the purview of law firms. So I wanted to do things a little bit differently. Law firms can be very expensive in terms of their cost because, you know, there are these big law firms that charge a lot of money. The way that we’re doing it is that we want everyone to realise that it’s very important and because of that, it’s not as expensive as it ordinarily could be.

Also, if we look into things like trademark protection, you pay once and it lasts for seven years. Then you renew and then it lasts for 14 years thereafter. So it actually lasts for a very long time for relatively not very much money.



TechCabal: So are your services accessible in a way that is structured or measurable and not like consulting? Because consulting is very stressful for people in the tech world. You have to go sit down with someone, have a conversation then have a meeting, and try to determine what works. Is there some sort of structure that lets people know what they see is what they get?

Angela: Yes, there is. I mean, it’s an industry that is regulated. There are official fees that we pay to the government. That information is public so everybody knows how much it is. To be fair, you can come in and say this is what you want to do, and I’ll tell you how much it costs. That’s sort of how it works. I don’t charge for the initial advice that I give you the first day. You come in, you tell me about your business, and I tell you you can do this and this, and this is how much it costs.

With patents, it’s slightly different because what happens with patents is it has to be in a certain form in order for us to apply for a patent at the patents registry. In Nigeria, to be an Intellectual Property lawyer, you don’t have to know how patents work; we’re lawyers and not engineers. In other countries, it’s within the purview of engineers.

Inventa is interesting because we have a team of engineers and a team of draftsmen, so if you come in and give us the paperwork, we will transfer it into the way you can do it to register and that is at a cost.



TechCabal: How do you determine what qualifies for patent?

Angela: There’s a patent law in this country that tells you what can qualify as as a patent. And the most important thing is the fact that it must be new and it must be a secret. A lot of times, what happens is, some people come and say they have invented something and we have to tell them that’s not new.

A patent has to be new, it has to be novel and it has to be not available in the market. It also has to have an industrial application. This means it has to be able to be used in the market. It can’t just be, “I’ve invented something, here you go, let’s file it as a patent”. It’ll be refused.



TechCabal: An interesting case that has happened recently is Mi-Fone obtaining an injunction restraining Xiaomi, the owners of the Mi brand in Asia, from selling Mi devices in Nigeria, and I understand that they are trying to also obtain a similar injunction in Kenya. That, for me, highlights the potential problem with jurisdictional questions. How much protection do I get when I register my trademark, or do I have to register in every country in the world?

Angela: To be honest with you, the flippant answer is yes. Intellectual property is territorial. If you are going to protect your patent in Nigeria, it’s protected in only Nigeria. It’s not protected anywhere else. The good thing, or the interesting thing, about it is we now have conventions.

We have reciprocal agreements with different countries. How it’ll work will be, if you do a treaty application or convention application in one of the convention countries, then it sort of gives you an edge when you register in Nigeria. It does not mean that you don’t have to register in Nigeria – you absolutely do. It just means it’s already been accepted, it has the same date as the prior application as well.



TechCabal: How is the market responding? Are there startup entrepreneurs knocking down your door asking for advice?

Angela: The market is responding very well. I do think that since we’ve started, we’ve had a lot of people. Especially people who are just starting their own businesses and are starting to think, “This is something that I want to do.”

We’ve had interest on the other side of the spectrum as well. I’m talking about big businesses who have never thought about things like registering their trademark or protecting their brands. So it’s actually very interesting.

Another thing that I get a lot is that people don’t think it’s affordable, but actually, it is semi-affordable. Because like I said, it isn’t cheap legal service. Legal services, in general are not cheap, if I can use that word.

One thing I would like to point out is, this is an avenue where people think they can do it themselves. You can, but I would not recommend that you do, because we’re talking about working with government agencies. So I really think it’s important to use someone who knows what they are doing. I mean, I’ve been doing it for 9 years so definitely, I know what I’m doing.

If you would like to find out more about IP services for your startup, you can contact Angela Adebayo on +2346062766077 or email nigeria@inventa.com.

umaryusuf:
Are you on Google mail list? Is better you ask there or better still Contact Google support

normal Google support or AdSense support?

I applied for AdSense late last year,my application was approved ,and I had the account,Ads worked and all, but I wasn't ready to start running the website then, just wanted to have the acct on stand-by, and this year when I wanted to finally kick off the website project,I found out they've stopped my Ads from showing because of insufficient contents, so they said I should re-apply whenever I have the issue settled.
So I already have enough contents on the website now,over hundred Post, I headed to the Google AdSense page to re-apply but i found no link to re-apply,I opened all the pages I found there, found nothing , so I just went ahead to regenerate another ads code,maybe it would serve as re-application. Pasted the Ads code but ads ain't showing yet for over a week now.

Toast is a dating and matchmaking android application with the website Toast. Today, the platform has officially been launched for youth who want to initiate friendships or relationships with people around them and the ones away from their location as well. Toast was created for users to Meet, Chat, Mingle and fix date with interesting people.
The vision of the Founder, Rejoice Chukwuma is to make TOAST Africa’s best premium dating and matchmaking app where people can “discover the people they’d crossed paths with earlier”, “send them a toast to show interest in them and if they reply, it's a Toast Match!




According to the Founder “there’s a possibility for a user to discover a person he or she had run into at the estate mall earlier in the day on TOAST” which is a vital reason to be on toast.
“Toast gives a user an avenue to meet people and make real connections, as regards friendship and initiating relationships” – Community Manager, Adaobi Felix.
The current toast app is the first version and we’ve made it very easy to use for our current and prospective users, the cool features you'll love about Toast includes:
· Discover People Nearby - Shows people around you in real-time as you cross paths.
· Ghost Mode - You can go incognito and chat only with the people you’ve liked.
· Toasted - Liked more than one? Keep track of them in the Toasted Area.
· Chat - Chat up with your matches on our messenger and express yourself better with our cool stickers!
· Visitors - Know those who have viewed your profile.
· Gift Store - Like them secretly: they won’t find out… unless the interest is mutual! But you can also choose to be noticed by sending a Charm.



We’ll consistently roll out more exciting features as we expand.
TOAST is:
* 100% Cool
* 100% Safe and Confidential
* 100% Real
So what you waiting for? Find the person of your dreams. Happy Toasting!
We’re free - Yes! You read it right so enjoy Toasting!
Sign up on TOAST.today! It all starts with a TOAST!
Check out "Toast"
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=my.toast.app

Toast is a dating and matchmaking android application with the website Toast. Today, the platform has officially been launched for youth who want to initiate friendships or relationships with people around them and the ones away from their location as well. Toast was created for users to Meet, Chat, Mingle and fix date with interesting people.
The vision of the Founder, Rejoice Chukwuma is to make TOAST Africa’s best premium dating and matchmaking app where people can “discover the people they’d crossed paths with earlier”, “send them a toast to show interest in them and if they reply, it's a Toast Match!


According to the Founder “there’s a possibility for a user to discover a person he or she had run into at the estate mall earlier in the day on TOAST” which is a vital reason to be on toast.
“Toast gives a user an avenue to meet people and make real connections, as regards friendship and initiating relationships” – Community Manager, Adaobi Felix.
The current toast app is the first version and we’ve made it very easy to use for our current and prospective users, the cool features you'll love about Toast includes:
· Discover People Nearby - Shows people around you in real-time as you cross paths.
· Ghost Mode - You can go incognito and chat only with the people you’ve liked.
· Toasted - Liked more than one? Keep track of them in the Toasted Area.
· Chat - Chat up with your matches on our messenger and express yourself better with our cool stickers!
· Visitors - Know those who have viewed your profile.
· Gift Store - Like them secretly: they won’t find out… unless the interest is mutual! But you can also choose to be noticed by sending a Charm.



We’ll consistently roll out more exciting features as we expand.
TOAST is:
* 100% Cool
* 100% Safe and Confidential
* 100% Real
So what you waiting for? Find the person of your dreams. Happy Toasting!
We’re free - Yes! You read it right so enjoy Toasting!
Sign up on TOAST.today! It all starts with a TOAST!
Check out "Toast"
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=my.toast.app

http://penastory.com/2016/02/04/advice-me-my-girlfriend-is-double-dating-but-agreed-to-marry-me/

I have a girlfriend who also has another guy before we met. She is currently seeing the both of us and I know about the other guy but he doesn’t know about me. She tells me everything about the other guy but never wants the guy to know about me. I don’t understand it or what it is leading to. I am not really comfortable as when she is with me, she picks the other guy’s calls but if she is with him, she doesn’t take my calls.

She is however caring and nice to me and I can give my all to make her happy. We spend the night together almost every day but I a confused. When the guy first found out about me, he was making trouble with her and we both decided that she will hide our affair from him till she is able to sort out things with him. We have been together for like three years now and she has even agreed to marry me.

I don’t know what to do, because of her I am thinking of relocating to somewhere far where I won’t be seeing her because am much too in love with her to handle losing her and still keep on seeing her. I am going mental and really need advice.

http://penastory.com/2016/02/04/advice-me-my-girlfriend-is-double-dating-but-agreed-to-marry-me/

http://penastory.com/2016/01/25/the-midnight-visitor-akinwale-akinyoade-ademola-richards/

The persistent soft knock on the window brought me out of dreamland. My foggy brain took a minute longer than normal to register that the sound that woke me was a knock on the window. I yawned and stretched on the bed lazily before the soft knock came again. My head jerked instinctively to the direction of the noise and I wondered what could be making the noise. A quick look at my bedside clock told me it was 1:47 a.m. Alarm bells went off in my head and I jumped off from the bed as my thoughts flew to a possible burglary. The knock came again, this time a bit harder and I tiptoed to the window. I heard the soft hissing sound of Kasali’s voice.

“Bimpe open the window, it is me Kasali.” My heart fluttered in my chest and I quickly unlatched the window from the hook to let him in before going quickly to my bedroom door to lock it. He was standing there looking just as handsome as when I had last seen him which was the day before.

“What are you doing here Kasali, have you gone insane?” I whispered trying to control the excited tremor in my voice. If my father met Kasali in my room, going berserk would not begin to describe the way he would react. Father couldn’t stand Kasali because he was a welder’s son and so father considered him beneath me, a university undergraduate. If only father knew that despite’s Kasali’s lack of tertiary education, he was a smart and caring young man with a good heart. But what did father know about love? Absolutely nothing!

Kasali stood there unsure of what to do and I realized my questions must have left him unsure of himself. I went to him and hugged him, forgetting we were under my father’s roof and that he had climbed a three storey building just to come see me. I shuddered when my mind went to the thought of him falling off while climbing. He mistook my shaking for cold and wrapped his arms tightly around. I sagged into him and let him hold me close. No words were exchanged as we held each other close with no other witness but the moon far up in the sky, its light rays peeking into my room to catch a glimpse of our forbidden affair. I took his hand and led him to my bed, as we began to converse in hushed whispers. Kasali was his witty and humourous self and for a moment I forgot myself and laughed out aloud at something he said. My heart stopped in my chest as I realized what I had done and we both stood stoic still, waiting for footsteps to announce that we had been found out but nothing happened. After about five minutes of waiting in dreaded silence for the impending doom with nothing happening, we continued our conversation and loving embraces.

“Open the door this minute Bimpe!” Father’s booming voice came from the other side as a loud rap followed by a banging sounded on my bedroom door. Kasali and I sprung apart and I could see the fear on his face. He looked around the room desperately before running for the still opened window even as I made for the door. I paused to make sure Kasali was out of the window before I opened the door. Father barged into the room, looking like he was ready to commit murder, his whole body shaking with rage.

“Where is he? Where is the bastard?” Without waiting for an answer, his palm connected with my cheek and whatever answer I had been about to give died on my lips. He looked around the room again and this time his eyes caught the open window. He headed straight to it.

“God help me and you if I catch you riffraff. Oloriburuku, omo ale,” father’s voice sounded louder than ever in the silent night. His voice must have frightened Kasali as I heard Kasali’s scream even as mother came into the room. Together we rushed to father’s side by the window to see what had happened. Kasali lay on the ground below, sprawled on the floor unconsciously with his life oozing out of him. Father reeled from the window obviously still angry and landed another slap on my face,

“I hope he is dead!” With that he stomped out of the room like an angry bull while I slumped to the floor crying and praying Kasali would be alright.

I heard father order Akin to make sure all the doors and windows were locked to prevent silly educated girls and their more foolish lovers while he instructed mother to stay with me to ensure I didn’t do anything stupid like climb out a window like Kasali had done. I shut my bedroom door to conceal my shame from Akin’s probing eyes which held a mix of pity and curiosity in them. The tears flowed down my cheeks unhindered but I dared not cry out so I sobbed into my pillow.
Father’s chiding hurt badly and at that moment, I was torn between not knowing the fate of my lover and having provoked father to such fury. Mother sat looking at me without saying a thing in the characteristic manner that defined her. She dared not contradict father even if her heart went to Kasali as I could tell it did judging from he frequent glances at the window. After about ten minutes of sobbing, my tears abated and turned into soft sobs. I tried to muffle the sounds with the edge of my wrapper so as not to arouse father’s anger again if he heard me crying. I wanted to go see that Kasali was well. I loved him, father or anybody else couldn’t change that. He is my life, I thought to myself. Thoughts of elopement crossed my mind but then I was scared of missing out on my father’s blessing and having to do without mother’s grace. That part of my brain that was still functioning well with reason held me back.
The led light of my phone suddenly caught my attention and I rushed to the dresser. Grabbing the phone, my hands shook as I saw it was a text message from Kasali. The phone clattered to the ground in my hurry to input the pin and I swore under my breath as I picked it up and tried to still my shaking hands. My misted eyes scanned the text
“I can’t do this anymore.” That was all it said but it was enough to send my thoughts spinning like a whirlwind. I could not understand what it meant. “I can’t do this anymore?” Many thought passed through my mind; it could mean a million and one things. Could this mean he was leaving me? Was he tired of the hide and seek games and finally ready to face father square on? Mother was fast asleep in her chair where she was to keep guard over me so I made for my closet and quickly discarded the wrapper throwing on a brassiere and slipping into a gown and flat slippers as quality as possible.
Opening the door without making a noise seemed to take forever but I managed to do that without arousing mother. I said a silent than you prayer to God when I saw Father’s bedroom door closed. I tiptoed out of my room and hoped the rich Persian rug would muffle the sounds of my footsteps. The wooden staircase creaked in protest when my feet landed on it however and the sound was like the explosion of a gun going off in my ears. I paused for a moment to see if anyone had detected my actions.
“Where do you think are you going madam?” Father’s voice sounded behind me in clipped tones. My heart stopped in my chest and I stood still unable to face him before my rebellious heart flared up again and I spun around to face him with my the emotions flashing on my face
“I am not telling you,” I barked at him. I was surprised at the sound of my own voice as this was something I would not have done on a normal day but today wasn’t a normal day, I had witness my lover falling from a building, gotten a text that left me confused. I needed answers, I couldn’t go on living in fear of father at twenty-seven. Father’s face registered surprise and his face contorted in a mask of rage for what must have been umpteenth time that night
“If you go out of this house, don’t bother coming back,” father barked back at me. His words hit me hard and my legs wobbled. My first thought was to bow my head in defeat and walk back to my room silently but my emotions were running high. I had reached the end of my tether, I have allowed father control me for too long. He was always the one that had the final say and the woman emerging in me wasn’t going having any of that anymore. I had to find out the meaning of Kasali’s text, I had to know he was alright and most of all I had to speak out and free myself of father’s prison. Mother was behind him watching the whole scene with saucer big eyes. It hit me then that she was just another of his slaves, obeying his every command.
Kasali’s text had read “I cannot do this anymore.” Father words were “If you go don’t come back to this house”. I had to see my midnight lover, I had to do this for me and without another word, I ran down the flight of steps without a backwards glance. As I busted out through the door, I felt truly free for the first time in forever.

http://penastory.com/2016/01/25/the-midnight-visitor-akinwale-akinyoade-ademola-richards/

its an entertainment blog,and the best method so far have been Facebook post boasting,so I wanna know the other good ways that help gets views