The Nigerian Foreign Intellectual Property Office is responsible for accepting, examining and granting the design patent right of Nigeria, a member of the Paris Convention and the Patent Cooperation Treaty. Nigeria was once a British colony, and its legal system was greatly influenced by British laws. 1960 After Nigeria's independence, the Nigerian government promulgated the Patents and Designs Act in 1970, which was the first official patent decree in Nigerian history. 1990, the Nigerian government amended the patent and design law of 1970, which is also the current patent law in Nigeria. It mainly consists of patent, design and two accessories.
According to the patent and design law of Nigeria, an invention that can be patented should meet the following two conditions: first, it is novel, produced through innovative activities and has industrial applicability; Second, it is an improvement on the patented invention, which is novel, produced through creative activities and has industrial practicability. At the same time, the law stipulates inventions that cannot be protected by patents, such as animal and plant varieties or methods for producing animals and plants basically based on biological principles.