On April 26, 2025, the world celebrated Intellectual Property (IP) Day. Intellectual Property refers to creations of the mind, such as inventions, literary and artistic works, designs and symbols; names and images used in commerce, as well. It is a category of property that includes intangible creations of the human intellect, with the aim of protecting the exclusive rights of the owner to their creations. Since its inception in 2000, when World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) first designated April 26 as World IP Day to raise awareness about the significance of intellectual property (IP), every year’s celebration has been defined by a theme. This year’s was: ‘IP and Music: Feel the Beat of IP’, and it highlighted how IP rights protect the creations of musicians, composers, and other music creators, ensuring they are rewarded for their work. Mayo Ayilaran speaks more on IP with GREGORY AUSTIN NWAKUNOR.

So since when did Nigeria start observing IP Day?
WHEN the day was named, the fad could not catch on immediately, as it took some deliberate actions several years after before it caught attention. Thank God, we have about two or three days that we have to celebrate intellectual property in a year.

There is World Book Day; the world goes on to promote intellectual property of writers/authors. There is also World Music Day to promote the creativity of musicians. In addition to that, we also have other streams of IP, which are patent and design. These are vis-a-vis trademarks. We believe that when other arms of IP come together to celebrate the World IP Day, then more people will be more aware of what Intellectual Property is. IP Day encompasses all arms of creativity such as books, literary works, physical works, artistic works, cinematography, audiovisuals, broadcast, and sound recordings. So, on this day, all these arms come together to celebrate the intellectual property. For this year, we partnered with Nigerian Copyright Commission in their state and regional offices to talk about IP, to bring out the need for people to celebrate and respect IP. If we don’t do this, people who are really creative will not be encouraged to create. These are the things that we are trying to do, but it is a trend that is gradually catching up, and not something that will happen in a day. It will take some deliberate efforts. That’s why we have the media. We have both the print and electronic media working on this, and when the news and the idea is disseminated across broad, many people will catch up with the trend. They will see that we are all involved in creativity, and we are promoting the respect for creativity.

I’ll say about three or four years back. But like I told you, different year with different theme, different focus and challenges. So, I’ll say it’s this year that deliberate attention is being put on music as an IP, because this year’s IP day is centered on music as intellectual property, so, you can see why we must be involved.

How does it protect creativity with respect to music?
IP is what should be protected because once you write your music; the right within the music is what is called IP. So the copyright in music is what is called IP in music, which is protected under the law of copyright. The Copyright Act of 2022 listed some of the things you cannot do in somebody’s musical works without his permission, which must be obtained in writing and not orally. So, if you must go out to sing the song that I composed and the lyrics, you must obtain my written permission. I might say I have given you to go and sing and record, but it must be in writing.

In modern days, it is not like that, you just have to take that formal permission, which is licence and pay some money for it then you are free to use it. So the protection offered by law is what the musicians, the composers, the publishers, producers, the writers and the performers are enjoying, and they are sure that at the end, they are not labouring in vain; something is coming back to them for their work. So that is the protection that the law has granted IP.

So, how is it enforced in the country?
One of the ways of enforcement is you come to an organisation like Musical Copyright Society of Nigeria (MCSN), which is collective management organisation, if you want your IP rights in music to be protected, you come to an organisation like the MCSN, you give them the particulars of that work for them to have it in their system. So, it is the job of the organisation to go out and find who is using that work, get them formally permitted or licensed, grant them license to use the work the way they like to use it, whether in their businesses, public relations and so forth.

They pay some amount of money, which they take back to the owner of the work at the end of the day. And if someone is found not obtaining that license, you take the person to court. After asking the person to do the needful and he or she is still adamant, then we are left with the option of taking the person to court for persecution for civil liabilities. The law also grants the right owner to complain o the Nigerian copyright commission to persecute the person criminally. For IP under the copyright, one may go to jail, one may be imprisoned; one may be fined or even asked to pay heavy damages, or even stopped completely not to use the work. So these are the ways to enforce IP.

Recently, the rising emergence of streaming platforms, how is it affecting Intellectual property protection?
We can do that both ways, but one thing that I want to say is that it is a good omen, because as someone who creates works, the benefit of your creativity is in use. If your work is not used on a large scale, the returns coming to you will be very small, but if the use is on a large scale, that means you’re expecting something big.

That is one advantage of the online use, they allow and they engender massive use of the work across various continents in the world. But another problem is that many of these streaming platforms are much more like pirate streaming platforms, we find it difficult to even locate the proprietors of these streaming platforms, so, to get them to even license them will be very difficult. We believe that with organisations like government bodies, like Nigerian Communication Commissions, that have these frequencies will be able to trace some of these people, get them in line, because it is not only the creators that are losing, but government itself is losing. If we go to streaming platforms and are able to license the platforms for 100 million, the government will expect to collect 7.5% as VAT (Value Added Tax): So government too is losing if these pirate online streaming platforms are not identified to be licensed.

The same thing goes with online radios and so on, that are so many now in this country, but we are on our heels to flag them and get them licensed with the help of the necessary government agencies, we will either take them down or get them licensed. It is a win-win situation for us, but at the beginning, it may look difficult and unattainable.