Domitilla: Zeb Ejiro wins trademark case against Anne Njemanze

The Federal Trademark Registry on Thursday revoked all documents issued to actress Anne Njemanze in respect of brand ownership of the movie Domitilla.

The ruling followed a long battle between Anne and filmmaker Zeb Ejiro over the rightful ownership of Domitilla, a movie shot and produced by Ejiro in 1996.

The movie which portrays the life of a young woman struggling to make ends meet as a Lagos prostitute starred Anne as the lead character and other actresses like Sandra Achums, late Ada Ameh and Kate Henshaw.

Sequel to this, Domitilla 2 was also produced and released in 1999 by Ejiro, while a remake is scheduled for release this year.

Years after the release of the movies, Anne reportedly trademarked the name “Domitilla and Device” on September 16, 2020, and later approached the trademark registry to register the name.

But Ejiro approached the registry, asking for the quashing of the trademark.

Delivering judgment on the dispute, the registrar Shefiu Adamu revoked all documents issued to the actress.

He said, “The petitioner (Ejiro) has been using Domitilla for a long time, even the respondent acted in the film named Domitilla for the petitioner.

“The respondent/applicant had acted in a series of films for the petitioner, Section 22 of the Trademark Act is quite explicit.

“Therefore, the Registrar of the Trademark have the statutory power to correct any error in connection with the application of trademark

“The application of the respondent (Njemanze) is hereby refused, the tribunal cancels any document that might have been issued to the applicant, they were all issued in error.

“The applicant acted in bad fate, and with this, the petitioner’s claim is upheld.”