Wizefield & Co. | Practice Areas

TRADEMARK

Our team are made of able trademarks Practitioners with vast experience over the years in a wide range of trademark issues and have built a strong team to deal solely with the prosecution of trademarks and other issues arising there from. Our aim is to always provide prompt excellent trademark services in affordable cost to our client. In African frontier, we assist our client with Banjul Protocol of African Regional Intellectual Property Organisation (ARIPO) comprises of 13member countries and that of Organisation Africaine de la Propriété Intellectuelle (OAPI) comprises of 17 member countries, our eminent presence in east Africa (Kenya) and individual National face of most African countries. Madrid protocol & EU Trade mark registration with assistant from our trusted partners.

The Trademark service handle by our team are as following:

Preliminary advice on registrability or otherwise and other general advisory work
Clearance searches
Oppositions
Trademark Registration
3rd Party and other Office Actions
Amendment of trademarks
Takeover and Resuscitation of Old Files
Recordal of Changes (Mergers, Assignments, Name and Addresses)
Renewals and Restorations
Acquisition, Protection, Enforcement, Transfer & Revalidation of IP Rights
International IP registrations;
Local registration of internationally recognized IPs

OPPOSITION

We are team dedicated to protecting clients’ trademarks by opposing the registration of any conflicting trademarks or defending any opposition against client’s trademarks at the Nigerian Trademarks Registry. We are quite experienced in prosecuting trademark cancellations both at the Registry and in the regular courts, and have handled upwards of a thousand trademark opposition cases and cancellation actions.

The firm’s Trademark Opposition practice includes the following services:

Trademark Journal Watch Service
Advising on chances of successfully defending or opposing trademark applications
Initiating trademark opposition actions against offending trademark applications
Defending trademark opposition actions
Drafting petitions and making representations before the Registrar of Trademarks;
Negotiating amicable settlement between opposing parties;
Extracting written undertakings from offenders to refrain from infringing on clients’ Intellectual Property rights.
IP watch service

PATENTS

We have a deep appreciation of Patent rights, as valuable business assets for both organizations and individuals who seek to establish effective and lawful barriers to competition. We therefore encourage our clients to seek patent protection for their innovations before same are adopted or exploited by the competition. Obtaining this protection provides them with a legal recourse to recover damages in the event of patent infringement.

Our services include:

Preliminary advice
Prosecution and maintenance of Patents
Patent searches
Patents registration (conventional & Non-conventional)
PCT filing
Patent Renewal
Commercial Patent Services
Contentious Patent Services (Administrative/Litigation/Alternative Dispute Resoultion)

Documentary Requirements for Registration:

A simple Power of Attorney/Authorization of agent.
A “clean and clear” copy of the specification, claims, abstract and drawings. (Including amendments if necessary).
A copy of the published PCT Pamphlet comprising the complete specification i.e. Copy of International Publication, International Preliminary Report on Patentability and the international Search Report/Written Opinion,
The text of the PCT specification and claims filed should include any amendments effected by the annexes to the International Preliminary Examination Report.

DESIGNS

A registered design protects the aesthetic appearance of an article. The Nigerian Patents & Designs Act allows for the registration of 2 different types of designs:

Combinations of lines or colours or both (e.g. Textile Designs)
Three-dimensional designs ( e.g. product packaging )

Conditions for Registrability
An industrial design is registrable if:

it is new; and
it is not contrary to public order or morality

Documentary Requirements for Registration:

An application in the requisite form stating the article to which the design is to be applied.
Statement of Novelty of the Design
Specimens, photographic or graphical representations of the design.
A Power of Attorney, if application is being made by an agent.
An indication of the kind of product or class of product for which the design will be used.
Foreign priority applications: a written declaration showing the date, number, country and the name of the person who made the earlier application. If unavailable at the time of application, the applicant shall within 3 months of application, furnish the registry with a certified copy of the earlier (foreign) application.

Documentary requirements for filing an amendment

An application in the requisite form
6 specimens, photographic or graphical representations of the amended design.

Drawing requirements

The representation of the design shall be made on strong paper and except where otherwise required, on one side only of a size approximately thirty- three (33) centimetres by twenty (20) centimetres and having amargin of approximately five (5) centimetres.
The figure or figures contained in the representation shall be placed in an upright position on the sheet.
Where the representations are drawings or tracings, they shall be in ink, and if on tracing cloth or paper, it shall be mounted on paper of the size prescribed above.
Where words, letters or numerals appear in the design, but are not of essence to the design, they shall be removed from the representations.
Post-registration: Upon Registration, a duplicate of the Design Certificate will be included in the Register of Industrial Designs. The Registrar is requested to publish a notification of the registration.

Maintenance/Renewal fees

The registration of a design lasts for a period of 15 years after which it reverts to the public domain and is no longer renewable. Within the indicated 15 years, the proprietor is required to renew the Design every 5 years.

The fusion of our rich background in intellectual property law and our expertise in corporate and commercial law practice affords us the rare skill combination required to assist our clients navigate safely through the intricate intellectual property issues that arise in commercial transactionsServices provided;

COMMERCIAL IP PRACTICE

IP Due Diligence/IP Audits:
We assist our clients in evaluating their IP portfolio or those of companies of interests to them, with a view to ascertaining the ownership, quality and quantity of IP assets of the target company. Each IP due diligence/Audit exercise is carried out meticulously thus ensuring the accuracy and exhaustiveness of same. We conduct IP due diligence / audit exercises from the standpoint of a clear understanding of the client’s specific business objectives and are therefore able to provide clients with an detailed report that is appropriate for each specific transaction.
Franchising
We provide specialist legal advice on various aspects of franchise transactions and guide clients through the maze of legal, regulatory and transactional hurdles that are usual to franchise arrangements. Whether it is a major international brand seeking to expand into the Nigerian commercial space, or a local entity seeking to buy a franchise, we provide our clients with tailor-made advice that ensures that their commercial interests are well-served.
IP Licensing
Developing license strategies, negotiating and drafting license agreements are part of the services we offer under our commercial IP practice. We help our clients determine license arrangements that align with each client’s peculiar business strategy and objectives.
IP Co-Existence / Settlement Agreements
There is an increasing preference for settlement of IP disputes through Co-existence/Settlement Agreements, rather than the usual dispute resolution mechanisms. We leverage on our experience to help clients negotiate settlement on intricate IP disputes.
IP Documentation
We are versed in the art of drafting and vetting documentation for all manner of IP-related transactions and business arrangements. We give attention to the fine details of each transaction and are able to prepare well-crafted agreements that minimize the possibility of disputes and enhance harmonious business relationships between the parties.

COPYRIGHT PRACTICE

Our dedicated teams of well-knowledgeable in copyright laws and practice in delivering excellent custom tailor service to our clients’ needs to set them at head of the pyramid in the industry. Our Consistent and vigilant watch behalf of our client against infringement of any kind kept valuable and our client always come back for more. Our team vet through your invention and advice accordingly on the protections to seek and make positive steps in executing them.