The Daily Times of Nigeria Plc have threatened to drag
Premium Times to court over the use of ‘Times’ in its brand name , a letter
sent to Premium Times
by Daily Times’s lawyer states that the tendency of the
word ‘TIMES’ in your publication has the tendency of appropriating Daily Times extant goodwill. 
VS
Daily Times is one of Nigeria’s foremost newspapers, it
started its publication on June 1, 1926 in Lagos as Nigeria Printing and
Publishing Company Limited, it is the publisher of Daily Times, Weekend Times,
Sunday Times and Business Times while Premium Times was registered under the
relevant Nigeria laws in 2011 by Premium Times Services Limited with a vision
to strengthen Nigeria’s democracy amongst other things...........CULLED FROM
EPOCHNG
The issue for determination is whether Daily Times have an
exclusive right over the word ‘TIMES’, to make it easier we shall discuss a
decided Nigerian case that relates to intellectual property ,the use of similar
names that is likely to confuse people or targeted audience like the case
above.
In the Nigeria famous case of NIGER CHEMIST V. NIGERIA
CHEMIST (Judgement delivered on the 16th March 1961) Supreme Court of
Nigeria by Justice Palmer .The plaintiff in this case is NIGER CHEMIST while
Defendant is the NIGERIA CHEMIST, the plaintiff carried on business as chemists
since April 1952 and had several branches in Onitsha and other towns in the
Eastern part of Nigeria while the defendant founded a firm carrying on exactly
the same business in Onitsha under the name of Nigeria Chemist. Both companies
were registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission. The court granted an
injunction against the defendant on the basis that their use of the name ‘NIGERIA’
Chemist was intended to deceive the members of the public to believe that they
have a relationship of some sort with NIGER CHEMIST. See also, the case of UK
TOBACCO LTD V, CARRENS LTD, the matter involved potential deception both in
product and in the product name.
Also, in Continental Pharmaceutical Ltd V. Sterling Products
Nigeria Plc and Smithkline Becham Plc (1995) suit noFHC/L/CS/460/95 there was a
legal battle between the two companies which lasted for about 16 years where
the defendants used the white and blue logo with the packaging concept of
Panadol for its own product ‘Conphamol’ damages of N500M was awarded against
the defendant for infringing on the copyright of the plaintiff.
This is a typical case of passing-off, therefore for it to
stand Daily Times must proved that
(i)
Reputation
is attached i.e. that the goodwill attaching to the name Premium Times is in
question under which the services are rendered to the targeted audience.
(ii)
That
there has been misrepresentation on behalf of Premium Times which has the
potentials of causing members of the public to believe Premium Times is same as
Daily Times.
(iii)
That
it has suffered or likely to suffer losses by reason of Premium Times
misrepresentation
Conclusively, the right to reject a
name that is similar or likely to confuse is vested on the Corporate Affairs
and where issues like this is raised you may be forced to drop the name and
failure to comply damaged shall be rewarded against such person.
Thank you.
Oyenike Alliyu-Adebiyi LLB(hons) BL
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