The Dialectics of the Right of Ownership of Patentable Inventions Under the Nigerian Legal System.

Abstract

The grant of the right of patent to an invention is vested in the statutory inventor, employer, commissioner of a work, assignee or licensee. For this right of patent to be granted the invention must be patentable. Patentable inventions are inventions in respect of which patent is granted under the law. Patent is regulated in Nigeria by the Patents and Designs Act (PDA) 2004, which protects inventions that fall within patentable subject matter. An invention is deemed patentable if it is new, results from inventive activity and is capable of industrial application; or if it constitutes an improvement upon a patented invention and it is also new, results from an inventive activity and is capable of industrial application. However, not all inventions are patentable, some are non-patentable and they include plant or animal varieties or essentially biological processes (other than microbiological processes) for the production of plants and animals; or inventions that are contrary to public order or morality.