The Nigerian government has signed a 3-year intellectual property rights (IPR) deal to create an online marketplace where Nigerians can sell their intellectual property rights and receive royalties, iAfrikan has reported. Â
The deal was signed with Developing Africa Group (DAG), a UK-based IPR commercialisation group to create a marketplace where Nigerians can sell their registered IPRs and actually receive proceeds in their digital wallets.
The platform will be built on the Algorand Blockchain which, according to DAG CEO Ben Oguntala, “provides the performance, scalability, security, and functionality required to implement such a large-scale project but is also environment-friendly”.
DAG has also selected Koibanx, an Argentina-based software company, as the tokenisation and payments engine for the platform.
This is neither an e-commerce nor NFT platform, but a website where people can sell their intellectual property rights.
Intellectual property is divided into copyright, patents, trademarks, and industrial designs. Simply put, they’re the exclusive rights creators have over their works. Those right include the right to sell their works or permit others to use their works.
Just like you have the freedom of movement or the freedom to post freely on social media, creators—like photographers, writers, painters, designers, and even scientists—also have the right to sell or rent out whatever unique things they create, subject to a few conditions.
What this means for everyday Nigerians
For Nigeria’s growing creator economy, this means more visibility and income.
A platform like this would allow everyone, from content creators and musicians to photographers and actors, sell their intellectual properties. Celebrities like Osita Iheme could sell rights to soundbites, photographers like Fati Abubakar could list rights to their photos, and even tech bros can sell rights to unique processes or designs (including logos) that are registered under Nigeria’s patent law. The Nigerian film industry—Nollywood—could also raise funds by selling some of its features.
Forget NFTs, it’s time to start registering all your designs and logos!
