Nigeria - Improvement in Administration of Company Name Registration enhances Enforcement of Rights of Trademark Owners

The Corporate Affairs Commission, the body responsible for the registration of companies, recently completed the transfer from a manual register onto a computer database of the names of all registered companies. Anyone conducting a search can now obtain a computer printout showing the names of registered companies which are similar to any name provided by the enquirer. As a result, it is now much easier for trademark owners to take advantage of the provisions of section 30 of the Companies & Allied Matters Decree 1990 in protecting their trademarks. The Decree came into force on the 31st of December 1990 and s.30 provides, inter alia, that no company may be registered by a name which "in the opinion of the Commission would violate any trade mark .... registered in Nigeria unless the consent of the owner of the trade mark .... has been obtained". Where a company is registered with a name that conflicts with an existing trademark and the consent of the trademark owner has not been obtained, section 31 gives the Commission power to require the company to change its name. At present the Commission does not carry out any examination to determine whether use of a name would violate the rights of any trademark owner. It is therefore incumbent on trademark owners to take steps to alert the Commission to such violations. Owners of famous trademarks (registered in Nigeria) would be particularly interested in this development as it is usually such marks that are copied or adopted by infringers seeking to enhance their image by using such marks in their company names. As service marks are not yet registrable in Nigeria, trademark owners who provide services and have registered their marks in, for example, Class 16, 25 or 28 should also be interested in this development.

A number of legal provisions of relevance to trademark owners are to be found in the Companies & Allied Matters Decree 1990, a piece of legislation primarily to do with company law. One of such provisions is section 30 which provides, inter alia, that no company may be registered by a name which "in the opinion of the Commission would violate any trade mark .... registered in Nigeria unless the consent of the owner of the trade mark .... has been obtained". Where a company is registered with a name that conflicts with an existing trademark and the consent of the trademark owner has not been obtained, section 31 gives the [Corporate Affairs] Commission the power to require the company to change its name. The Corporate Affairs Commission is the body responsible under the Decree for the registration of companies in Nigeria. Until recently the Commission's register of companies was manually kept. Happily, the Commission has now completed the transfer, from a manual register onto a central computer database, of the names of all registered companies. Therefore, anyone wishing to have a search conducted can now obtain a computer printout showing the registered companies whose names are similar to any name provided by the searcher. As a result, it is now much easier for trademark owners to take advantage of the provisions of section 30.

At present the Commission, when registering a company, does not carry out any examination to determine whether the name with which it is to be registered conflicts with an existing trademark. It is therefore incumbent upon trademark owners to take steps to alert the Commission to such conflict.

Also, as service trademarks are not yet registrable in Nigeria, trademark owners who provide services, and have registered their marks in one of the alternative classes, would find this provision particularly useful.