Mena Ajakpovi, SAN

Mena Ajakpovi, SAN is a Partner at Udo Udoma & Belo-Osagie, based in Lagos, Nigeria, practising in the firm's intellectual property, litigation, arbitration & alternative dispute resolution, and telecommunications, media and technology departments. His practice focuses on Intellectual Property Law.

He advises on copyright, patent, trademarks, domain names, broadcasting, music, movie and comedy production, distribution, branding, image rights, and franchising and licensing, amongst others. He has represented some of the world's biggest names and owners of IP in disputes relative to these areas.

Mena provided advisory support to Bloomberg TV Africa, through its franchisee, when Bloomberg entered the Nigerian broadcasting space. He also advised FIFA (International Federation of Football Associations), through its franchisee, on broadcast piracy of its signals for the World Cup in Nigeria. He represented a party in a copyright dispute relating to the "Big Brother" copyright format in Nigeria and represented Interswitch in the resolution of its dispute with a major competitor for the use of a patent, and is currently involved in patent litigation in the Nigerian fintech sector.

He supervised the team that pioneered anti-piracy campaigns on behalf of Microsoft Corp in Nigeria, and has led anti-piracy and counterfeit campaigns on behalf of brand owners in Nigeria. In entertainment law, Mena has a close working relationship with movie producers, artistes, actors and other stakeholders in the media and entertainment industry, and his advice is widely sought in music production deals, film finance and disputes arising therefrom.

Mena is a Notary Public, a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators UK (FCIArb), and a member of the panel of Neutrals of the Lagos Court of International Arbitrators (LCIA). He is also a Fellow of the Centre for International Legal Studies, Salzburg, Austria. He is a member of the Anti-counterfeit Committee of the International Trademarks Association (INTA) and has made presentations in this capacity.

He is also a member of the Intellectual Property Committee of the International Bar Association, a member of the Chartered Institute of Trademarks Attorneys UK, and the Pharmaceutical Trade Group (PTMG), a pan-European forum for IP lawyers with specialisation in the pharmaceutical sector. He has featured in the Who's Who Legal Intellectual Property section and has published papers on copyright, information technology, broadcast rights and dispute resolution.