#101 SERIES: Dear Nigerian Blogger - Avoiding Intellectual Property Pitfalls

Two days ago, I came upon some reports  that a journalist, Aye Dee, successfully got Google to takedown infringing content on the popular Nigerian blog lindaikeji.blogspot.com. (Linda Ikeji, in case you don’t know, is a Nigerian blogger, whose blog page  is among the 10 most visited sites in Nigeria.

Apparently, there has been some backlash against her on social media- as indicated by comments and other reports. It is difficult not to wonder how much of this is due to disapproval of what some feel she represents, what some might call “beef” and how much of it is really concerned with the issue at hand i.e. copyrights and related infringements.

Yesterday, Linda, in her characteristically un-fazed manner, responded to the issues in a long rebuttal. Her reply may be summarized as follows: 

• She did not infringe on Mr Aye Dee’s rights because she has never been to his site.
• 1.       The real reason Aye Dee & co are raising this claim is because they are  “haters”  trying to take her blog down_ because
  

#101 Series: Protecting Your Ideas: An Introduction to Non-Disclosure Agreements

One of the aims of this blog is to aid the understanding and creation of Intellectual Property (IP). Intellectual Property refers to creations of the mind that may be transformed into a functional, visual and/or artistic form for the benefit and enjoyment of others.  One of the key goals of Intellectual Property Law is the protection of ideas by the owner.

Ideas may be protected by various means; by copyrights in the case of a literary or artistic work, by a patent- if you are an inventor who has created a functional product, a trademark   for your logo, product or cartoon character, or by a registered design for the way   a product looks.

Regardless of what type of intellectual property you are protecting, there will be a need to share your ideas with some people such as investors, technical partners or promoters, before the product gets to the market.   At this stage, issues like confidentiality, non-circumvention and non-disclosure become important.

Many years ago, I submitted a proposal to a Finance Company in response to an open Request for Proposal (RFP).  The lady who received my proposal was really pleasant, and I was really hopeful.

After awaiting feedback for what I figured was too long a time, I decided to approach someone in the company who ought to know about the RFP. He came back to me saying he didn’t find my proposal in all the submissions. However, he saw a proposal which was almost identical to mine (as per the copy I showed him), and it had been submitted by a company the husband of the pleasant lady worked for.