Legal Principles – Nigerian LawCompass

Intellectual Property Law Important

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY LAW — Trade Marks — Test for Comparison of Conflicting Marks

"The question is not whether if a person is looking at two trade marks side by side there would be a possibility of confusion; the question is whether the person...

Intellectual Property Law Important

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY LAW — Trade Marks — Presumption of Validity of Registration

"In all legal proceedings relating to a registered trade mark, the fact that a person is registered as a proprietor of the trade mark shall be prima facie evidence of...

Intellectual Property Law Important

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY LAW — Trade Marks — Infringement Under Section 5(2) of the Trade Marks Act

"Following the provisions of section 5(2) of the Trade Marks Act an infringement of a registered trade mark cannot be maintained unless the court finds that the defendant is engaged...

Intellectual Property Law Important

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY LAW — Trade Marks — Importance of First Syllable in Comparison of Marks

"The tendency of persons using the English language to slur the termination of words also has the effect necessarily that the beginning of words is accentuated in comparison, and, in...

Intellectual Property Law Important

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY LAW — Trade Marks — Distinctiveness as Prerequisite for Protection

"An essential element of a device claimed to be a trade mark is that it identify the goods of a particular merchant and distinguish them from the goods of others....

Intellectual Property Law Important

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY LAW — Trade Marks — Determining Confusing Similarity Between Marks

"In deciding whether two marks are confusingly similar, the marks alone must be considered, divorced from associated features or get up and the like. ... Evidence is admissible to show...

Intellectual Property Law Important

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY LAW — Trade Marks — Essential Features Distinguished from Decorative Embellishments

"In my view the graphic design and the colouration as contained in exhibit D are incapable of distinguishing the brake linings or brake pads of one undertaking from the appellants'...

Intellectual Property Law Important

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY LAW — Trade Marks — What Constitutes the Registered Trade Mark

"The essence of a trade mark is that it indicates a connection in the course of trade between the goods and some person having the right to use the same....

Intellectual Property Law Important

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY LAW – Trade Marks – Registrar’s Discretion to Extend Time Under Regulation 52 Despite Default

"Where an opponent as in this case failed to file a statutory declaration as provided in Regulation 52, by virtue of Regulation 52, he is deemed to have abandoned his...

Intellectual Property Law Important

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY LAW – Trade Marks – Application for Registration – Effect of Mere Acceptance

"It is therefore clear that from the wording of the Act nobody acquires the status of the 'proprietor' unless that person, in relation to the trade mark, is the owner,...

Intellectual Property Law Important

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY LAW – Trade Marks – Unregistered Trade Mark – Right to Sue for Infringement

"No person shall be entitled to institute any proceeding to prevent, or to recover damages for, the infringement of an unregistered trade mark; but nothing in this Act shall be...