– Intellectual Property Rights in The Workplace in Nigeria: Who Owns What Between the Employer and the Employee?

Introduction

Every employer of labour wants value for the wages he pays his workers and expects the best result from the anticipated services to be rendered. This is the reason why most companies make specific years of experience or certain abilities part of the essential requirements for employment. The employees, on the other hand, make efforts to meet the standard required by employers and sometimes endeavour to surpass those expectations. In doing this, therefore, the employee consciously or unconsciously, while exacting his intellectual aptitudes in and for the services of the employer, may come up with new ideas, innovations, or inventions e.g. by creating some products, a new process or system of operation in the course of his employment which may be beneficial to the service of the employer. Besides, in order to meet up with contemporary business demands, some companies hire and invest in employees to develop new products, improve processes, create new technologies and develop new markets. The resultant effect of all these is the creation of works of intellectual property.

Intellectual Property (IP) relates to ideas or pieces of information produced by the human mind and incorporated in tangible objects that the law recognises and protects from unauthorised use by others. The property is not in the tangible object but in the information or idea the object reflects which is intangible. Any intangible asset reflecting intellectual property is regarded as an IP asset. IP assets, therefore, form part of the non-physical assets of a business. IP assets can be in the form of inventions, literary or artistic works, designs, symbols, names, images, etc. Examples of IP assets include computer programs, mobile apps or software, books, articles/images/designs in newspapers or magazines, etc., films, recordings, paintings, photographs, sculptures, performances, new plant varieties, broadcasts, databases, shapes, surface decorations, list of customers, sales tactics, business concepts, trade secrets, confidential information, invented or improved products, service methods or processes, brands, logos and product designs. These various assets, amongst others, may be created or developed in the workplace and/or form parts of a company’s assets.

This Article has been upgraded to a book on Amazon. The question that calls for an answer here which is comprehensively addressed in the book is – who possesses the rights over IP assets created in the workplace, particularly those created by the employees, or who can claim ownership right over such IP assets? Different laws regulate the distinct aspects of IP. The book attends to this poser under the various aspects they individually fall. It addresses the following areas which could be subjects of employment or industrial law disputes:

1. Patents
2. Industrial Designs
3. Copyrights
4. Neighbouring Rights
5. Trademarks
6. Trade Secrets
7. New Plant Variety Protections

To access the book click HERE.

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