{"id":23036,"date":"2025-03-23T14:37:35","date_gmt":"2025-03-23T14:37:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/?p=23036"},"modified":"2025-03-23T14:40:22","modified_gmt":"2025-03-23T14:40:22","slug":"court-indicts-mtn-orders-%e2%82%a6770-million-fine-for-trademark-infringement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/?p=23036","title":{"rendered":"Court Indicts MTN, Orders \u20a6770 Million Fine for Trademark Infringement"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A Federal High Court in Lagos has found <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mtn.ng\/contact\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">MTN Nigeria Communications Ltd<\/a>. guilty of trademark infringement and ordered the telecom giant, along with the Registrar of Trademark, Patent &amp; Designs, to pay \u20a6770 million in damages to Citilink Accesscorp Limited for unauthorized use of the \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/webplus.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">WEBPLUS<\/a>\u201d trademark.<\/p>\n<p>Justice Daniel Osiagor, in his ruling, declared that MTN unlawfully used the \u201cWEBPLUS\u201d trademark, which was legally registered by Citilink under Class 9 of the Trademark Registry.<\/p>\n<p>The court further issued a perpetual injunction barring MTN and the Registrar from registering, issuing certificates, or using \u201cWEBPLUS,\u201d \u201cWEB+,\u201d \u201cMTN WEBPLUS,\u201d or any similar variation under Classes 9, 16, and 38.<\/p>\n<p>The verdict stems from suit number FHC\/L\/CS\/1124\/2014, where Citilink Accesscorp Limited, represented by its counsel Azubuike Obiekwe, sought legal redress for MTN\u2019s infringement. The court granted Citilink\u2019s claims, including:<\/p>\n<p>\u2022A declaration that Citilink is the sole legal owner of the \u201cWEBPLUS\u201d trademark under Registration RTM No. 65162.<\/p>\n<p>\u2022A ruling that MTN\u2019s use of \u201cMTN WEBPLUS\u201d or \u201cWEB+\u201d constitutes trademark infringement.<\/p>\n<p>\u2022A perpetual injunction preventing MTN and the Registrar from issuing or registering any similar marks.<\/p>\n<p>MTN\u2019s legal team, led by Fidelis Adewole, argued that the defense of honest concurrent use applied, claiming that the telecom firm acted in good faith without deceptive intent.<\/p>\n<p>However, Justice Osiagor rejected this argument, ruling in favor of Citilink and granting the following reliefs:<\/p>\n<p>\u2022General damages of \u20a6840 million, calculated at \u20a670 million per year from 2014 to 2025, for loss of business and brand dilution.<\/p>\n<p>\u2022An additional 15% annual interest on the damages until the judgment is fully paid.<\/p>\n<p>\u2022A perpetual injunction restraining MTN from using the \u201cWEBPLUS\u201d trademark.<\/p>\n<p>However, the court denied Citilink\u2019s request for special damages, including legal fees, citing insufficient proof.<\/p>\n<p>Justice Osiagor reaffirmed that trademark infringement cases fall exclusively under the jurisdiction of the Federal High Court, citing Section 251(1)(f) of the 1999 Constitution and the Supreme Court ruling in Omnia (Nig.) Ltd v. Dyke Trade Ltd (2007) 15 NWLR (Pt. 1058) 576 SC.<\/p>\n<p>Additionally, the court emphasized that adding a company\u2019s name\u2014such as \u201cMTN\u201d\u2014to an existing trademark does not eliminate the likelihood of confusion, referencing Draper v. Trist (1939) All E.R 513 (C.A.).<\/p>\n<p>With this ruling, MTN is now permanently barred from using \u201cWEBPLUS\u201d or any similar name, solidifying Citilink Accesscorp Limited\u2019s exclusive rights to the trademark.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Federal High Court in Lagos has found MTN Nigeria Communications Ltd. guilty of trademark infringement and ordered the telecom giant, along with the Registrar of Trademark, Patent &#038; Designs, to pay \u20a6770 million in damages to Citilink Accesscorp Limited for unauthorized use of the \u201cWEBPLUS\u201d trademark.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23037,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[173,9700,141,10445,10446],"class_list":["post-23036","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-court","tag-fine","tag-mtn","tag-trademark-infringement","tag-webplus"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23036"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23036"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23036\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23041,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23036\/revisions\/23041"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/23037"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23036"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23036"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23036"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}