Africa Fashion Law

Happy New Month beautiful people, I will be answering a very important question based on the trademark registration and a company registration. So many individuals believe that the trademark registration is tantamount to the company registration. So i will be giving a brief and clear answer to the question: "Is a company registration equivalent to the trademark registration?" The Trademark registration is very different from the registration of legal entities, entities like companies, business names, partnerships and so on. The registration of legal entities in Nigeria is handled by the Corporate Affairs Commission. While the registration of a Trademark is handled by The Registry of Trademarks, Patents and Designs under the Commercial Law Department of the Federal Ministry of Commerce and Industry. A registration in any of the separate government  department is not an automatic registration in the other. Trademark depicts the authenticity and source of products and ...

What is your name and what is the name of your brand? -My name is Kassim Serah and the name of my brand is Serah Kassim. How have you been able to protect your design? -I have basically not been protecting my designs because most times my clients know what They want. What do you feel is the biggest legal problem of the Nigerian Fashion Industry? -I think the biggest problem is the legal backing of patent of designs. Fashion isn't really catered for legally, because I believe there should be a backing where once an inspiration is gotten from a designer, you have to reference them. As a designer, Have you faced any legal downer in relations to theft of your intellectual property, and how did you address the problem? -Nope, I haven't faced any issue of theft of my intellectual property. What do you feel the Nigerian Fashion Industry needs? -I think the government needs to invest in the manufacturing process, in order to create good quality fabrics in prints, A...

Where are all the fashion slayers, stylists,bloggers,designers,stylists, fashionista? I need you all here right now. The fashion alter ego is related to every fashion consumer.  My constant readers might have observed that most of my blog post topics are usually questions, but today I am stating that "we all have a fashion ALTER ego", if you have an alternative opinion, 'holla'.  I am sure you are wondering what I mean by 'fashion alter ego', wonder no more.   "What is an alter ego?   What is fashion? You have your answer." I am just messing with you, I am in a good mood so I will be giving you a definition. A fashion alter ego is a second/An alternative sense of style/fashion which is distinct from a person's original sense of fashion/ style. You know those days, you don't feel like going out. As the super hero that you are, you have to go out to save the world and being a fashion conscious fellow, you want to look good but you c...

Everyday I get to meet people that inspire and challenge me on my understanding about various aspect of life. This week I had an interesting interview  with Fadipe Oluwafemi, the CEO of JUSTPHEMMY CREATIONS about the fashion legal downers. What is your name and what is the  name of your brand? -  My name is Fadipe  Oluwafemi and I am the CEO of JUSTPHEMMY CREATIONS. How have you been able to protect your designs? -My Customers are fully aware of my style, when my designs are produced they always have my trademark, that is my logo. So basically,  I have protected my designs with my trademark/logo. What do you feel is the biggest challenge faced in the Nigerian Fashion Industry? -There are many challenges we face here as fashion designers but the worst of them all is the electricity and the exchange rate which is really affecting us, because most of the fabrics we use are not manufactured here in Nigeria, we order them from foreign countries in ...

The month of July has been all shades of awesome. The wait is finally over, Game of Thrones season 7 is out. I am sure that half of the world population anticipated the return of "winter", I know I did. I almost made the decision to take a break just for Game of Thrones but then Fashion Law has my heart. This week I had an exclusive interview with  a  young talented designer, Ajani Seyi, CEO of JANICUTS Fashion House. It was an interesting session and I definitely gained  knowledge from his experience. What is your name and what is the full name of your brand? -I am Seyi, Ajani Seyi. The name of my brand is JANICUTS Fashion House, we are into unisex casual outfits. How have you been able to protect your designs? -People steal designs, it has not been easy to protect my designs, I have made conscious effort to tackle the theft of any of my designs. I have been able to address the issue to an extent in my immediate environment but for places that are quite far, ...

Shout out to all the copycat fashion designers, that duplicate other designers design  and then rock them on the runway, I have a simple advice "Be Original". The art of fashion designing is all about originality. There are quite a few fashion designers in Africa that have original designs, designers like; Ejiro Amos Tafiri, Deola Sagoe, Nana K.Brenu, David Tlale and so on. In fashion,  the same colours and styles are applied by most designers, what can make a design unique can be tricky. I am an upcoming designer and sometimes I get my inspiration from other designers' design. It is not a crime to get inspiration from other designers work but it is a crime to make a replica of a designer's work, then call it your own. It takes a lot of effort to create an original design and very few designers put in so much effort to make an original design. Many top and upcoming  designers have been caught in the web of copying other designers' work. ...

The second week of July was a very busy week for me. A few months back I won an election for the post of the social director of the Quinessential Equity Chambers OAU and last week was a trying moment for my post. Leadership takes a whole lot and it is applicable to every aspect of life including Fashion. In fashion, we have the fashion leaders and the fashion followers.  Fashion leaders are individuals who are highly influential in fashion. Fashion leaders usually have a very strong interest in fashion and have a positive attitude towards change in fashion. Fashion followers are individuals who wear a certain style only after it becomes a popular trend. There are two major aspect of fashion leadership: fashion innovativeness and fashion opinion leadership. Fashion innovativeness is a criteria of fashion leaders who have the tendency to buy new fashion earlier than consumers. Fashion innovativeness often leads to trend setting. There are various celebrities and designers th...