Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Retail Limited has filed a legal action before a Federal High Court in Abuja against Natural Network Petroleum and Gas Company Limited (NNPG) and two others over alleged infringement on its trademark.
The NNPC had in a suit filed through its lawyer, Muyiwa Atoyebi, also joined Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) and Registrar of Trade Marks, Patent and Designs as co- defendants to the suit.
The plaintiff had also in a separate suit sued Flory Mummy Nigeria Limited over the same subject matter.
When the matter came up last Friday, the court granted an order that CAC and the Registrar of Trade Marks be served with the court processes in their corporate office in Abuja.
The plaintiff is asking the court to hold that the first defendant ‘NNPG’ mark is phonetically and alphabetically confusingly identical/similar to the NNPC’s trademark.
The plaintiff is further asking the court to make an order of perpetual injunction restraining NNPG from selling, offering any service, advertising for sale or promoting howsoever the name and consequently the acronym of NNPG in any of its service outlets, or any similar acronym, mark design and / or trade logo identical or similar to its own.
It also wants the court to direct the CAC pursuant to Section 31(1) and (4) of the Companies and Allied Matters act, 1990 to remove the NNPG’s name from its record being similar with its registered trademark, NNPC.
NNPC further wants the court to direct the Registrar of Trademarks, Patent and Designs never to accept for registration the word NNPG or any word or colour combination so closely identical or similar to its own.
The plaintiff further wants the court to stop the NNPG from using similar/identical colours/combination of colours to that of the plaintiff as its retail outlets.
In addition, it wants the court to restrain the NNPG from infringing or assisting others to infringe on the plaintiff’s registered trademark, colors/combination of colors, totems, insignia and emblem.
The plaintiff is also asking the court to order NNPG to remove all signposts, names/acronyms with letters NNPG and any such identical/similar design infringing on its trademark with immediate effect.
NNPC also demands N15 million damages for the infringement and passing off of its trademark and design.
The plaintiff also alleged that sometime in 2015, it discovered that Natural Network Petroleum and Gas Company Limited sells and continues to sell petroleum products under the confusing brand design of NNPG, at the very least, confusingly similar to that of the plaintiff’s registered trademark NNPC in Akure, Ondo state.
It further avered that Natural Network Petroleum and Gas Company Limited with the intention to deceive unsuspecting general public has also adopted and continually used for its commercial benefit, in its retain outlets/service stations that exact unique color/combination of colors with very similar emblem of its own.
