President Muhammadu Buhari and his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), have only seven days to stop using Next Level logo allegedly stolen from Rex Institute.
This is the fallout of an order handed to President Buhari and APC by Rex Institute, who is alleging ownership of the Next Level Logo recently unveiled by the party.
Supporters of Buhari had unveiled Next Level as the campaign logo and slogan for his re-election campaign on Sunday.
Soon after the unveiling of the logo at the launch of Buhari 2019 campaign, a former aide to ex-President Goodluck Jonathan, Reno Omokri, had accused the President and his campaign organization of plagiarising the logo of a thesis authored by Kelly Costner, an Associate Professor of Winthrop University in South Carolina, USA.
Responding through a letter dated November 19, 2018 and addressed to the National Legal Adviser at 40 Blantyre Cres. Wuse 2 Abuja Nigeria, the institute vowed to drag Nigeria President and his party to court should they not respond to their order.
“Dear Sir Without prejudice, it has come to our attention that the All Progressives Congress Party of Nigeria has stolen the intellectual property right of our client, The Rex Institute.
“As you can see from the attached visuals, the logo your Party has just unveiled and which is being promoted by the Leader of the Party and the President of Nigeria on his Twitter feed is a direct copy of that of our client, with just a small colour change in the arrow.
“However, every other element from the name, font and design is identical. In fact, in my entire legal career, I have never seen such a blatant piece of plagiarism.
“We, therefore, demand that you immediately cease and desist in any use of the logo and make every effort to recall and destroy all materials which have already been disseminated.
“Failure to do so within 7 days will leave our client with no other option but to seek full legal redress via the Nigerian Courts. I look forward to your immediate reply. Yours faithfully Sue Lavache Attorney at Law,” the letter read.