Overview

The Patents and Designs Act (CAP P2 LFN 2004) is a Nigerian legislation that provides comprehensive provisions for the registration and proprietorship of patents and industrial designs. The Act is divided into parts covering Patents (sections 1-11), Designs (sections 12-22), and General provisions (sections 23-33), with two schedules on compulsory licenses and transitional provisions. Key definitions include patentable inventions requiring novelty, inventive activity, and industrial applicability, with exclusions for plant/animal varieties and inventions contrary to public order. The right to a patent vests in the first to file or validly claim priority. The Act outlines procedures for patent applications, examination, grant, registration, and publication, as well as rights conferred, duration (20 years from filing), lapse, surrender, and nullity. For designs, it defines registrable designs (new, original, and having individual character), registration procedures, rights, duration (five years, renewable for two five-year periods), renunciation, and nullity. General provisions cover contractual licenses, assignments, infringement, legal proceedings, foreign priority, and effect against the State. The Act also includes rules-making powers and repeals previous legislation.

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