Patents and Designs Act (Cap P2 LFN 2004)

The Registrar examines applications for compliance with requirements. Patents are granted upon acceptance. The Registrar can investigate whether the invention is truly new and inventive before granting.

If you invent something at work using your employer's resources, the employer owns the patent but must pay you fair compensation. Inventions made outside work belong to you.

Patents last for 20 years from the filing date. You must pay annual renewal fees in advance each year to maintain the patent. If you stop paying, the patent lapses.

A patent gives you the exclusive right to make, import, sell, use, or stock your invention. For process patents, others cannot use your process or sell products made using it.

Industrial designs (the visual appearance of products) can be registered if new and not immoral. "New" means not publicly disclosed anywhere in the world before you apply.

Like patents, the first person to file a design application gets the registration. Joint creators share the right. This is also a "first-to-file" system.

To register a design, submit: a request for registration, drawings or photographs showing your design, what products the design is for, and other prescribed documents.

Design registration lasts 5 years initially and can be renewed twice for 5 years each (total 15 years maximum). Renewal fees apply.

Design registration gives you the exclusive right to manufacture products with your design, and to import, sell, or commercially use such products. Others cannot copy your design.