The Regulatory Framework and The Challenges of Enforcement for Breach of Intellectual Property Rights in The Entertainment Industry in Nigeria

Entertainment law involves a dexterous interplay of contract law, labour or employment law, fashion law, intellectual property law, sports law, and many others. This paper discusses the copyright protection in the entertainment industry in Nigeria with the objective of analysing existing legal framework of copyright owners in the entertainment industry on the various legal remedies both civil and criminal in an event of breach. Therefore, the paper using the doctrinal method of research highlighted laws relevant for the protection of intellectual property in the entertainment industry, such as the provisions of sections 8(2), 20(2)(a)-(d), and 144 of the Copyright Act, Cap C.28 LFN, with a view to finding the challenges of enforcement for the breach of the rights. It is the finding of this paper that there is a dearth of judicial decisions on intellectual property enforcement as well as a lack of proactivity of the National Assembly to develop an up-to-date and robust entertainment law. This necessitated lawyers using intellectual property law to defend the interests of their clients in case of breach; and therefore, the paper recommends the need to have a specialised law on the entertainment industry.