NBA-SBL capacity building for young lawyers
As part of its vision to build capacity for young lawyers and to improve the quality of Intellectual Property (IP) practice in Nigeria, the IP committee of the Nigerian Bar Association Section on Business Law (NBA-SBL) held a one-day seminar to discuss innovative trends in IP, challenges in the practice of intellectual property law, IP policies, treaties and partnerships for a new IP regime in Nigeria.
Speaking on the theme, “Whither Nigerian IP in the 21st century”, the Dean of Law, University of Abuja, Prof. Kasim Musa Waziri, who was the guest speaker, highlighted the progress of IP over the years and how it has affected various sectors of the economy.
He laid emphasis on innovation, which is the theme for this year’s World Intellectual Property Day, stating that various trends intellectual property and innovation were impacting lives daily across the world.
“Innovation has contributed greatly to national development vis-à-vis the promotion of trade, economy, technology; thereby helping the living conditions of people, not just in Nigeria but globally,” Waziri said.
As part of these trends, Waziri said that the fundamental role of IP to Mergers and Acquisitions and Joint ventures is quite notable. He also noted the increasing use of Reverse Engineering (as a means of generating revenue), but which according to him is not thriving, as heavy reliance is still placed on petroleum.
He spoke further about instruments of Intellectual Property, such as copyrights, patents, layout designs, trademarks, stating that Nigeria continues to face grave challenges in IP rights, due to the shortcomings in IP laws.
“There are no enforcement of IP rights and protection in Nigeria till date,” he said. “Issues such as Passing off, malicious falsehood and Trade secrets are not adequately provided for in the governing rules.
“International instruments that were adopted were never domesticated. The laws were fashioned after the 1938 English law on IP, ours are still in use while such foreign laws have been overtaken by modern technology,” Waziri added.
Also speaking at this event, the Registrar of Trademarks, Patents and Designs, Commercial Law Department, Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investments, Williams Amuga said that Nigeria was blessed intellectually.
“However, the lack of strong government policies keep slowing down progress and these would only encourage our innovators to seek other contrives with more advanced and protective laws on IP,” he said.
He urged the government to employ Public and Private Practice (PPP) to keep IP afloat.
Earlier in his remarks, the Chairman of the NBA Section on Business Law, Olumide Akpata in his opening remarks, emphasized the need for such a seminar. He explained that it’s been almost a decade since a proper seminar was held in the area of Intellectual Property therefore leaving several issues that had arisen over the years, unresolved.
He encouraged lawyers especially the young ones present to express their views on prevailing issues arising from the poor practice of Intellectual Property in Nigeria.
STAKEHOLDER-ENGAGEMENT AT THE EVENT
Several comments and questions arose from the interactive sessions, however, the most deliberated was focused on the current collaboration between the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) and the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment to capture and migrate all files to the Intellectual Property Automated System (IPAS).
A lot of questions were asked on which was better, the IPAS or the manual system. Lawyers expressed their displeasure about the existence of two systems of filing being that this has made the whole procedure cumbersome and confusing and they are sometimes at a loss as to what advice to give on the system to use when asked by their clients.
They also argued that there was no guarantee as to the secrecy of the information put on the IPAS system and as such, no clear benefits of the system being put in place.
Participants also emphasized that the registry had a lot to do to harmonise both systems and ensure that certificates are received, as thousands of applications are currently pending and held up by the registry.
The Registrar responded saying that there was an on-going ‘data capture’ process at the registry. This he said was to help fast track applications and ensure that they are not lost in the course of being processed. He also stated that in another one year or two, all the manual files in the registry would be migrated to an e platform being that there are thousands of manual files.
A representative of the young lawyers when asked what challenges young lawyers encounter in the practice of Intellectual Property articulated some prevalent issues, mentioned the lack of knowledge on one hand, and inability to understand the principles governing IP in Nigeria.
Also identified was the non-enforcement and impracticability of IP laws. According to him, the former was caused largely by the lack of knowledge as it is only natural that one cannot enforce what one does not know or understand as the case maybe, and the latter, by economic realities.
He cited the instance of watching ‘Okafor’s law’ at the cinema at the rate of Five Thousand Naira, while its pirated DVD adaptation was hawked just outside the gates of the cinema for Five Hundred Naira.
Responding to some of the issues raised, the NBA-SBL Chair, Olumide Akpata enlightened participants about the some of the Section’s efforts and collaborations geared towards moving the IP regime in Nigeria to the 21st century.
At the end of the event, participants agreed that there was need to formulate an IP policy for Nigeria.
In this regard, The Chairman of the NBA-SBL Intellectual Property Committee, Afam Nwokedi, reiterated the need to work closely with other IP organizations towards actualising demand and expectations from the government within the IP regime without duplicating and dissipating energy.
He announced that the IP committee of the NBA-SBL has set in motion a joint ad hoc committee to work with Intellectual Property Lawyers Association of Nigeria (IPLAN), the International Association for the Protection of Intellectual Property (AIPPI) and all other Intellectual Property stake holders towards creating a platform that will enable actualisation.
He said, “the committee has also resolved to expand its scope outside Lagos and have a national reach. In this regard, arrangements are being made towards holding seminars, workshops and other stakeholder engagements in other parts of the country.
“We will also interface with the government to enable them monitor and contribute to any international IP treaty the government may wish to assent to,” Nwokedi said.
The event, which was highly attended, was very engaging and educative. Several young lawyers who attended the seminar said it had been a greatly rewarding experience for them, as practical solutions to address the challenges of IP in Nigeria were provided.