In a legal drama that has played out over more than two years, MTN Nigeria Communications Plc has prevailed in Lagos Federal High Court, with a judge dismissing a ₦1 billion lawsuit against the telecom giant and instructing the plaintiffs to pay ₦3 million in legal costs.
The case began when Walls and Gates Ltd and its Managing Director, Okechukwu Udeichi, filed a lawsuit claiming that MTN used their “20 for 20” promotional proposal without permission during the company’s 20th anniversary celebrations in 2021.
The plaintiffs argued that the campaign, where 20 sport utility vehicles were given to subscribers, amounted to copyright infringement, breach of confidentiality, and trademark violation, and sought ₦1 billion in damages.
But on Tuesday, Justice Ayokunle Faji delivered a decisive verdict, describing the suit as “frivolous, speculative and vexatious.”
The court found that the plaintiffs failed to show any legally protectable rights in their proposal, noting that it amounted to an unsolicited business idea that imposed no contractual or confidential obligation on MTN.
During proceedings, the judge also observed that the plaintiffs could not substantiate claims of trademark infringement and had already placed their proposal in the public domain by submitting it to the Nigerian Copyright Commission before sharing it with MTN.
The absence of a confidential relationship, the court held, further weakened their case.
In the end, the lawsuit was dismissed in its entirety, and the court awarded ₦3 million in costs against the plaintiffs, an outcome that underscores the importance of formal legal protections when pitching business ideas to large corporations.
