Section 2 of the Patent and Design Act states that the right to an invention by a Patent is vested in the Statutory inventor. This means that the person who is seen as the true owner of the invention, is the first to file for registration or to validly claim a foreign priority. It doesn’t matter whether he actually is the true inventor.

However, if it is discovered that the essential elements of the patent have been obtained by the dishonest applicant from the invention of another person, without the consent of that other person, the rights in the patent granted shall be deemed to be transferred to the actual owner.

The aim is not to encourage theft of another person’s intellectual property but to encourage the registration of the invention by the true owners.
Patents are given for 20 years subject to the payment of the prescribed annual fees.

For registration of your intellectual property as trademarks, designs and patents, send us a direct message or visit our website at www.businesslegal.ng