On February 14, 2023, the Business Facilitation Act (“BFA”) was passed into law in Nigeria. The stated objective of the Act is to promote the ease of doing business in Nigeria, eliminate bottlenecks, amend relevant legislation, and institutionalise all reforms to ease implementation. The Act amends existing legislations, including the Trade Marks Act Cap. T13, LFN 2004 (“TMA”) and the Patent and Designs Act Cap. P2 LFN 2004 (“PDA”). This newsletter will consider the validity of service marks registered prior to the passage of the BFA and discuss defenses available to right holders who own such service marks.
Amendment of Section 67 of the Trademarks Act
The BFA amended the TMA by introducing a definition for the term “goods”, which states that “goods” include “services”, and by amending the definition of the term “trademark” to include reference to use in relation to goods or services, shape of goods, packaging and ‘combination of colours’. The amended definition of trademark reads as follows:
