World IP Day 2026 Your Nigerian Brand Is Not Protected Until You Have Done This
Every week, we hear a story about a Nigerian business owner who has just discovered that someone else has registered their brand name as a trademark. Or that the logo their designer created is legally owned by the designer, not the business. Or that the technology they licensed from a foreign company cannot be enforced because it was never registered with NOTAP.
In every case, the business owner believed they were protected. They registered their business name with the Corporate Affairs Commission. They had a contract with their designer where they signed a license agreement but none of that was enough. And the cost of fixing it where feasible is always higher than the cost of getting it right in the first place.
On World IP Day, this article explains what it actually takes to protect a brand and its intellectual property in Nigeria in 2026.