Economy
Leveraging Intellectual Property for Business Growth
By Otori Emmanuel
In a fast-paced business world, intellectual property is the foundation of every business. It forms an integral part of a business, so the lack of understanding of its significance may lead to a catastrophe.
What is intellectual property?
Intellectual property is the original creative tool developed by a business. They are mostly intangible assets such as literary works, brand names, logos or designs, and invented products and services.
Every original brand of products and services brought into the limelight by a business owner into a marketplace falls under the intellectual property of the business.
Intellectual property helps to set apart a business from its competitors. Therefore, every business needs to protect these intangible assets in order not to always encounter legal problems.
What is Intellectual Property Rights?
Intellectual property rights refer to the legally approved rights that protect the intangible assets of the business.
Intellectual property rights are the catalyst tool for innovation sustainability, strategic growth, revenue influx, and partnerships.
Types of Intellectual property rights of a business
A. Trademark Registration: This is the most popular type of intellectual property rights. It is the registration that helps to distinguish a brand of products and services from other similar brands in the business environment.
Trademark helps the brand of a business to gain a brand identity in the marketplace. One can easily identify a fake product from the original product because of the distinctive registered mark.
B. Patent Registration: Patent registration is the protection of business inventions. This invention must be unique and exclusive to the originator otherwise, there will be no registration.
C. Copyrights: This is the protection of the original literary works of a business. These literary works could be originally developed adverts, lyrics and songs or movies, journals and articles on social media platforms that solely belong to the business.
The Importance of Leveraging Intellectual Property for Business Growth
A. Brand Identity: Building a unique brand of products and services that can serve the needs of customers or a percentage of customers, helps it to stand out from other general products and services in a saturated market. The business will have to carve out a brand name or design that can be used to differentiate the brand from other products.
Customers would always want to deal with a trusted brand rather than imitations if they are able to spot the difference.
B. Trust: Protection of intangible assets will always lead to trust of the business by customers. It shows the product or services are authentic.
C. It will lead to the removal of product imitations from the marketplace:
We all know that most products or services always have adulterated product packages waiting in line to be sold to buyers. These fake products are sold way cheaper than the original products and without the protection of the trademarks that cover these products, the business may run into financial losses.
D. Franchising: Intellectual property rights can allow the sale of the same model of business to another person. This type of business operation is called a Franchise. A franchiser simply sells his or her business to a franchisee who in turn must follow every detail of the existing business inclusive of the intangible assets the business owns in exchange for a fee.
E. It helps to keep the business out of court cases: When businesses fail to protect their intangible assets on time, they may not get the opportunity to use the same name or logo when a competitor in a similar line of business decides to use the same trade name as its trademark. So, it’s always important for a business to seek the services of an intellectual property expert for proper advice.
Conclusion
Intellectual property is part and parcel of a business. Trade secrets must be fully protected in order not to get exposed to competitors. The protection of intangible assets of a business will always improve the brand reputation and increase revenue inflow.
Only a handful of business owners seek the protection of their original brands and literary works. Therefore, it is always important for all stakeholders to always seek expert advice from an intellectual property practitioner. Also, enforcement of these intellectual property rights through the institution of legal actions can lead to the removal of mischief makers of fake products and services from the market.
Emmanuel Otori has over 10 years of experience working with 100 start-ups and SMEs across Nigeria. He has worked on the Growth and Employment (GEM) Project of the World Bank, GiZ, and Consulted for businesses at the Abuja Enterprise Agency, NNPC, Oriental Energy, Eko Electricity, FCT-IRS, Nigerian Navy and NITDA. He is the Chief Executive Officer at Abuja Data School.
By Adedapo Adesanya
Food Concepts Plc, the parent company of fast food brands like Chicken Republic and PieXpress, has disclosed plans to pay 10 Kobo in interim dividend to new and existing shareholders for the 2026 financial year.
This was disclosed by the company in a notice to the NASD Over-the-Counter (OTC) Securities Exchange, where it trades its securities.
The notice indicated that the proposed interim dividend, which comes with no bonus, will be paid to those who hold the stocks of the company as of the qualification date for the dividend, which was Tuesday, March 24.
This means only those who hold the company’s shares as of the closing session will be eligible to receive the stipulated dividend payment.
The shareholders of the company will be credited with the 10 Kobo dividend on Tuesday, March 31.
The notice noted that the closure of the company’s register will be on Wednesday, March 25, through Friday, March 27, 2026, both days inclusive.
By Adedapo Adesanya
The NASD Over-the-Counter (OTC) Securities Exchange dropped for the third consecutive session on Wednesday, March 18, by 0.39 per cent due to continued sell-offs.
In what would be the final trading session of the week due to public holidays on Thursday and Friday for Eid-el-Fitr, the NASD Unlisted Security Index (NSI) further dipped by 16.14 points to 4,114.75 points from 4,130.89 points, and the market capitalisation lost N9.66 billion to close at N2.461 trillion versus the previous day’s N2.471 trillion.
FrieslandCampina Wamco Nigeria Plc depreciated by N10.32 to sell at N112.00 per share versus N122.32 per share, NASD Plc dropped N4.50 to finish at N41.50 per unit compared with the previous session’s N46.00 per unit, and Geo-Fluids decreased by 9 Kobo to N3.02 per share from N3.11 per share.
On the flip side, Air Liquide Plc improved by N2.23 to N24.57 per unit from N22.34 per unit, Central Securities Clearing System (CSCS) Plc advanced by 90 Kobo to N76.33 per share from N75.43 per share, Food Concepts Plc rose by 24 Kobo to N3.30 per unit from N3.06 per unit, UBN Property Plc surged by 20 Kobo to N2.18 per share from N1.98 per share, Impresit Bakalori Plc jumped 16 Kobo to N1.83 per unit from N1.67 per unit, and First Trust Mortgage Bank Plc added 14 Kobo to trade at N1.89 per share versus N1.75 per share.
During the trading day, the volume of securities went up by 43,404.4 per cent to 400.8 million units from 921,265 units, the value of securities grew by 2,108.7 per cent to N1.2 billion from N54.7 million, and the number of deals soared by 23.7 per cent to 47 deals from 38 deals.
CSCS Plc ended the day as the most traded stock by value (year-to-date) with 38.7 million units valued at N2.4 billion, followed by Infrastructure Guarantee Credit Plc with 400 million units exchanged for N1.2 billion, and Okitipupa Plc with 6.4 million units traded for N1.2 billion.
Resourcery Plc finished the session as the most traded stock by volume (year-to-date) with 1.1 billion units worth N415.7 million, trailed by Infrastructure Guarantee Credit Plc with 400 million units sold for N1.2 billion, and Geo-Fluids Plc with 131.1 million units valued at N505.6 million.
By Dipo Olowookere
The Nigerian Exchange (NGX) experienced a pullback of 0.69 per cent as a result of profit-taking by investors, with shares in the banking and energy sectors mostly affected.
Data harvested by Business Post showed that the energy index was down by 4.58 per cent during the session, and the banking space lost 2.14 per cent.
They brought down the All-Share Index (ASI) by 1,402.56 points to 201,156.85 points from 202,559.41 points and shrank the market capitalisation by N900 billion to N129.126 trillion from N130.026 trillion.
Customs Street ended in red at midweek despite three of the five key sectors finishing in green. The consumer goods counter expanded by 1.19 per cent, the industrial goods index improved by 0.46 per cent, and the insurance sector grew by 0.43 per cent.
Red Star Express declined by 9.98 per cent to N25.70, Aradel Holdings went down by 9.68 per cent to N1,210.30, Presco lost 9.30 per cent to trade at N1,701.10, Living Trust Mortgage Bank crashed by 8.40 per cent to N4.80, and DAAR Communications dropped 7.50 per cent to end at N1.85.
On the flip side, Secure Electronic Technology gained 10.00 per cent to settle at N1.32, Guinness Nigeria rose by 9.92 per cent to N423.20, John Holt increased by 9.72 per cent to N11.85, Sovereign Trust Insurance surged by 9.57 per cent to N2.06, and Linkage Assurance chalked up 9.33 per cent to trade at N1.64.
Investor sentiment was weak yesterday after the bourse registered 33 price gainers and 38 price losers, indicating a negative market breadth index.
Market participants bought and sold 6.1 billion stocks valued at N130.1 billion in 58,562 deals compared with the 1.8 billion stocks worth N88.1 billion traded in 62,654 deals on Tuesday, representing a shortfall in the number of deals by 6.53 per cent, and a spike in the trading volume and value by 238.89 per cent and 47.67 per cent apiece.
The most active equity on Wednesday was eTranzact with 5.2 billion units sold for N24.3 billion, Wema Bank exchanged 111.4 million units worth N3.1 billion, Coronation Insurance transacted 96.4 million units valued at N303.9 million, Dangote Cement traded 75.2 million units for N56.5 billion, and Access Holdings exchanged 61.5 million units valued at N1.6 billion.
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