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ARTICLE · 30 SEPTEMBER 2020

Overview Of Software Protection In Nigeria

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The current high utilization of software in Nigeria has brought to the fore the importance of software protection in Nigeria

NigeriaIntellectual Property
Dr Olusola Johnson Jegede
Dr Olusola Johnson Jegede

The current high utilization of software in Nigeria has brought to the fore the importance of software protection in Nigeria. Software, being a valuable product of intellect is protected under the intellectual property law in various countries and Nigeria is no exception.

There are four ways by which Software can be protected as intellectual property, they include; Copyright, Patents, Trademark, and Trade Secrets. These four methods would be briefly discussed in this article.

PROTECTION OF SOFTWARE BY COPYRIGHT

The Nigerian Copyright Act (Here In referred to as NCA) classifies Software under literary works as works eligible for protection. According to section 1(2) of NCA, it specifies the mode of eligibility for a software to become protected.

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