Court Orders INEC To Pay Firm N17.3bn Over Infringement

L-R: Permanent Secretary, Lagos Ministry of Economic Planning and Budget, Mr Bayo Sodade, Commissioner for Finance, Mr Ayo Gbeleyi, Special Adviser to Lagos Governor on Budget, Mrs Iyabowale Aluko and Commissioner for Economic Planning and Budget, Mr Ben Akabueze, at the 2014 Lagos State Budget breakdown in Lagos, yesterday

A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja yesterday ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), to pay Bedding Holdings Limited for the use of its patent without approval.
Bedding Holdings had sued INEC for not seeking its consent as the owners of the patent before proceeding to use the data capturing system and transparent and collapsible ballot boxes in Nigeria before awarding a contract for the supply of the electoral materials used in the 2011 general elections.
By awarding contracts for the electoral equipment over which it had patent rights, Beddings Holding lawyers argued that its right was breached and demanded for over N17 billion compensation, half of the cost of all the items imported for the election, which it claimed would have been “minimum reasonable royalty accruable” to it.
The plaintiff had approached the court through its lawyer, John Okoriko, on November 25, 2010, seeking the following reliefs:
“A declaration that the plaintiff is the bona fide owner of the Patent Rights No. RP 16642 and Copyrights Designs No. RD 13841 in and over Electronic Collapsible Transparent Ballot Boxes (ECTBB) and Patent Rights No. RP NG/P/201-/202-Proof of Address System/Scheme (PASS) (Embedded with the Concept of the Coded Metal Plate) and the process and application of these products respectively to produce the Voter’s Register,
“A declaration that the contract entered into between 1st and 2nd Defendants (INEC and its chairman, Attahiru Jega respectively) of the one part and the 4th-6th Defendants (Haier Electrical Appliances Corporation Limited, Zinox Technologies Limited and Avante International Technology Incorporation respectively) of the other part for the production, procurement, supply, acquisition, importation, purchase, receipt, sale of the Direct Data Capturing Machines, Laptops and/or the collation/compilation and production of the Voter’s Register for the 2011 general elections or any other elections without first seeking and obtaining the written license, consent and authority of the plaintiff is a flagrant infringement on the plaintiff’s Patent Rights No. RP 16642 and Copyrights Designs No. RD 13841 in and over Electronic Collapsible Transparent Ballot Boxes (ECTBB) and Patent Rights No. RP NG/P/201-/202-Proof of Address System/Scheme (PASS) (Embedded with the Concept of the Coded Metal Plate),