The Evolution of Trademark Law in Nigeria: History, Reform and Limits

Trademark law has historically evolved in response to shifts in commercial organisation, from ownership marks and guild-based liability to modern source identification and goodwill protection. Yet the digitally connected marketplace — platform-based trade, non-traditional branding, virtual assets, and global online identifiers — has fundamentally challenged the industrial-era assumptions embedded in Nigeria’s trademark framework. The research problem addressed is that, despite recent statutory reforms expanding the meaning and scope of trademarks, Nigerian law remains only partially aligned with contemporary brand communication and digitally mediated source identifiers. Using a doctrinal and comparative methodology, the article examines the historical foundations of trademark law, the Business Facilitation (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2022, relevant Nigerian and comparative judicial authorities, and the pending Trademarks (Repeal and Re-enactment) Bill 2025 as an emerging reform benchmark.. The article finds that while the framework has commendably widened the registrable subject matter, it remains underinclusive for sound marks, motion marks, domain-based identifiers, hashtags, and other digitally embedded commercial signs. It further finds that this expansion, without robust limiting doctrines, creates risks of over-propertisation, speculative filings, monopolisation of commercially useful symbols, anti-competitive foreclosure, and closure of the expressive commons. The article concludes that Nigerian trademark law requires calibrated reform — strict distinctiveness thresholds, functionality constraints, genuine use safeguards, and explicit fair use protections — to preserve the balance among trademark protection, market competition, and expressive freedom in the connected age.