Preface:

In Nigeria, trademark registration is an important means for businesses to establish brand identity, protect reputation, and prevent others from hitchhiking in the fierce market competition. However, trademark registration is not achieved overnight, and its process involves a crucial safeguard - the trademark opposition procedure. This program allows third parties to raise objections to trademarks that have been published but not yet registered, which is a core system for maintaining fair competition in the market and ensuring the purity of trademark registration books. This article will systematically introduce the key elements of Nigeria's trademark opposition system.

1、 Nigerian Trademark Objection Authority

The official institution for accepting and adjudicating trademark opposition procedures in Nigeria is The Registrar of Trademarks (Nigeria), which is under the Commercial Law Department of the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment.

Responsibilities:The Trademark Registration Office is responsible for receiving opposition applications, conducting formal examinations, delivering opposition notices to the objector, managing the process of evidence and statements submitted by both parties to the opposition, organizing hearings (if necessary), and ultimately making decisions on whether to maintain or reject the opposed trademark application based on the case and law.

Importance:The decision of the registration bureau is the first level decision in the objection procedure. If either party disagrees with the decision of the registration bureau, they may further appeal to the Federal High Court of Nigeria.

2、 Timing of Trademark Objections in Nigeria

There is a strict time window for filing trademark objections, and if missed, the right to object will be lost

1. Announcement period:

When a trademark application is deemed to meet the registration requirements after formal examination and substantive examination (including search), the Trademark Registration Office will publish it in the Official Gazette (Trademarks Journal).

2. Objection period:

The legal deadline for raising objections is within 2 months (60 days) from the date of announcement. This is the only legal opportunity to raise objections.

3. Criticality:

Stakeholders must submit a complete Notice of Opposition and related documents to the Trademark Registration Office during this period. Beyond this 60 day period, in principle, it will be impossible to raise objections to the published trademark (unless there are extremely special reasons and permission has been obtained from the registration office or court, which is very difficult).

3、 Basis for Trademark Objection Application in Nigeria

Objections must be based on legal and specific reasons. The Nigerian Trademark Act (Cap T13, LFN 2004) and related regulations provide legal grounds for filing objections, mainly including:

1. Prior identical or similar trademarks:

The objector owns identical or highly similar trademarks that were previously registered in Nigeria and are designated for the same or similar goods/services, which can easily lead to confusion.

The objector owns identical or similar trademarks that were previously used in Nigeria (unregistered but have acquired certain goodwill) for the same or similar goods/services (based on the common law principle of "Passing Off").

2. Famous Trademark Protection:

Even if the goods/services subject to the opposed trademark application are different or dissimilar to the opponent's well-known trademark, if the registration and use of the trademark imply a connection with the opponent, it may harm the opponent's interests or dilute the distinctiveness of their well-known trademark.

3. Lack of significance:

The opposed trademark is only composed of descriptive words, generic names, industry logos, or other elements lacking distinctiveness, and cannot effectively distinguish the source of goods/services.

4. Violation of morality or public order:

The opposed trademark contains elements of deception, defamation, obscenity, or violation of Nigerian law or public morality.

5. Malicious registration (Bad Faith):

The applicant knowingly or should have known of the existence of the opponent's trademark, but still applies for registration of the trademark for improper purposes (such as obstructing the opponent's entry into the market, demanding high transfer fees, etc.).

6. Unauthorized registration by agent or representative:

The opposed trademark is registered by the agent or representative of the objector without their authorization.

7. Violation of geographical indication protection regulations.

8. Other situations where registration is prohibited by law.

The objector shall clearly state in the objection notice the specific reasons on which their objection is based and provide corresponding evidence to support it.

4、 Nigerian Trademark Objection Process (Five Stage System)

The trademark opposition procedure in Nigeria follows the principle of adversarial approach and mainly consists of the following steps:

1. Filing Notice of Opposition:

The objector shall submit a notice of objection (Form 3) in the prescribed format to the Trademark Registration Office within the 60 day notice period, clearly stating the reasons for the objection, the objector's information, the opposed trademark information (application number, announcement number, etc.), and the basic facts and basis supporting the objection.

Pay the prescribed official fees.

2. Registrar's Acknowledgment&Service:

After the registration bureau confirms that the objection notice meets the formal requirements, it will issue an acceptance notice to the objector.

The registration office will deliver a copy of the objection notice to the respondent (trademark applicant).

3. The respondent submits a Counter Statement:

After receiving the objection notice, the objector has * * 2 months (60 days) * * time to submit a Counter Statement (Form 4) to the registration office.

The defense statement shall respond to each allegation and reason in the objection notice, state its defense basis, and pay the corresponding fees.

The registration bureau will deliver a copy of the defense to the objector.

4. Evidence Stage:

Evidence of the objector: Within * * 2 months (60 days) * * after receiving the defense, the objector shall submit an affidavit evidence (Statutory Declaration/Affidavit Evidence) and relevant attachments (such as trademark registration certificate, usage evidence, sales data, advertising materials, market research report, expert opinion, etc.) to support their reasons for objection.

Evidence of the objector: After the objector's evidence is submitted, the objector also has * * 2 months (60 days) * * to submit their rebuttal evidence.

Respondent's response evidence (optional): After the respondent's evidence is submitted, the objector has * * 1 month (30 days) * * to submit a rebuttal evidence (Sur reply evidence) against the respondent's evidence. This step is usually aimed at newly proposed arguments or evidence.

Evidence exchange completed: After all evidence has been submitted, the registry will confirm the end of the evidence phase.

5. Hearing (if necessary):

After the exchange of evidence is completed, the registry usually arranges a hearing. Either party may request a hearing.

At the hearing, the lawyers (or representatives) of both parties will make oral arguments to the registrar (or hearing officer), emphasizing their own evidence and legal basis, and refuting the other party's viewpoint.

A hearing is an important part of clarifying facts and conducting in-depth debates, but not all cases require it to be held.

6. Registrar's Decision:

After reviewing all written materials (objection notices, defense statements, evidence) and considering the content of the hearing (if any), the registrar will make a written decision.

The decision may be:

Maintain objection:

Reject the application for the opposed trademark (in whole or in part).

Reject objection:

Allow the opposed trademark to continue the registration process.

Additional conditional registration (rare).

7. Appeal:

If either party disagrees with the decision of the registration bureau, they may appeal to the Federal High Court of Nigeria within the prescribed time limit after receiving the decision (usually 30 days or according to court rules). The court will conduct a retrial (De Novo) or review the case based on legal issues.

5、 Nigeria Trademark Objection Cycle

The trademark opposition process in Nigeria usually takes a long time and is mainly influenced by the following factors:

1. Legal time limit flexibility:

Although the law stipulates a basic time limit for evidence submission (such as 60 days for objector evidence, 60 days for respondent evidence, etc.), in practice, the registration authority and both parties often agree or approve extensions of these time limits. This is almost the norm.

2. Case complexity:

The legal issues involved in the case, the amount of evidence, whether it involves multiple categories, whether it involves well-known trademarks or complex factual determinations, etc., will significantly affect the processing time.

3. Registry workload:

The speed at which the registration office handles cases directly affects the overall cycle.

4. Whether to hold a hearing:

Arranging a hearing requires coordinating the schedules of both parties and the registrar, which may result in additional time.

5. Whether to appeal:

If one party appeals to the court, the entire dispute resolution cycle will be greatly extended.

Typical cycle range:

From submitting objections to the registration office making a preliminary ruling: it usually takes 18 months to 3 years or even longer without excessive delay. This includes multiple delays in evidence exchange, time for internal processing by the registry, and possible scheduling of hearings.

If the case is appealed to the Federal High Court, the entire dispute resolution process (from objection to obtaining final court judgment) may take 3 to 5 years or longer. The backlog of court cases and the complexity of judicial procedures themselves are the main reasons.