Intellectual property in telephone numbers in Nigeria

Abstract

There are conflicting regulations affecting subscribers' property in telephone numbers in Nigeria. This article conceptualises telephone number as property capable of ownership in the jural sense and in the prism of bundle of rights theory of property. It analyses developments in advanced jurisdictions to highlight possibilities for reform. The analogy of treatment of property in domain name is used to demonstrate that contract can beget property rights. Some property concepts and theories are espoused to support the intellectual property in telephone number for the subscriber including privacy, trademark, acquisition theory, rule of capture, bundle of rights, goodwill, and so on. These are all used to demonstrate and advocate that there is property in telephone number vested in the subscriber in Nigeria, not only from a statutory perspective but also from some legal theories and approaches to property and any reform should approach it from those perspectives.