Aloysius DiugwuChoosing the right trademark classes for your fashion business in Nigeria is one of the most important legal decisions you will make as a brand. Nigeria’s fashion industry is one of the largest on the continent. The apparel market alone is projected to generate over USD 10 billion in revenue in 2025, and that number does not include accessories, fabrics, and the enormous informal market that sits underneath it. Lagos Fashion Week featured more than 70 designers in 2025 and drew over 15,000 attendees. Online fashion sales hit approximately USD 544 million in 2025. By any measure, Nigerian fashion is a serious commercial sector.
And yet, counterfeiting accounts for an estimated 35% of the luxury goods market in Nigeria. Brand identity theft is rampant. Designers build names over years and watch unregistered marks get copied with very little legal recourse.
The reason so many fashion businesses in Nigeria are exposed is not lack of awareness. Most designers know they should protect their brand. The problem is execution. Many file under the wrong trademark class, or register only one class when they need two or three, or delay registration until someone else beats them to it.
This post exists to fix that. If you run a fashion business in Nigeria, whether you sell clothing, fabric, bags, footwear, accessories, or all of the above, this guide tells you exactly which trademark classes apply to you and what each one covers.
Why Trademark Registration Matters More in Fashion Than Almost Any Other Industry
Fashion brands live and die by their name, logo, and visual identity. Unlike a pharmaceutical company whose product value is tied to a formula, or a tech company whose value sits in software, a fashion brand’s primary asset is often the mark itself. The name, the logo, the label sewn into the collar of a garment. That mark is what customers pay for, what journalists write about, and what competitors imitate.
Without a registered trademark, you have no legal standing to stop someone from producing clothing, bags, or fabric under your brand name. You cannot send a cease and desist letter that carries weight. You cannot pursue infringement at NIPO or in court. You are essentially building on land you do not own.
A registered trademark gives you:
- The exclusive right to use your mark for the goods and services you registered it under
- Legal standing to challenge anyone who uses the same or a confusingly similar mark
- A registered asset that can be licensed, franchised, or used as collateral
- Protection that lasts seven years initially and can be renewed indefinitely in 14-year cycles
The filing fee at NIPO is approximately ₦170,000 per class. Against the cost of building a fashion brand from scratch, that is a small number. Against the cost of a trademark dispute or the loss of a brand you built over years, it is an even smaller number.
The Four Trademark Classes Every Fashion Business in Nigeria Needs to Know
Fashion businesses in Nigeria typically need to consider four trademark classes: 18, 24, 25, and 26. Most businesses will not need all four. Which ones you need depends entirely on what you sell. Let us go through each one.
Class 25: Clothing, Footwear, and Headgear
This is the primary trademark class for the Nigerian fashion industry. If you design, manufacture, or sell finished clothing, shoes, or headgear of any kind, Class 25 is your starting point.
Class 25 covers:
- All forms of clothing for men, women, and children
- Footwear of every type, including sandals, sneakers, heels, boots, and flat shoes
- Headgear, including caps, hats, fascinators, gele and agbada caps
- Sportswear and activewear
- Underwear and lingerie
- Traditional Nigerian attire including agbada, aso-oke garments, buba, sokoto, and ankara-sewn clothing
- Ready-to-wear and bespoke garments
What it does not cover:
- The fabric used to make the clothing (that is Class 24)
- Bags and accessories (that is Class 18)
- Buttons, zips, and trim used in production (that is Class 26)
For Nigerian fashion designers, Class 25 is non-negotiable. If your brand name appears on a garment, a shoe, or a headpiece, you need this class registered. It does not matter whether you are a solo designer selling on Instagram, a growing streetwear brand, or an established label with stockists across Lagos, Abuja, and Port Harcourt. Class 25 is where your protection lives.
The competition in this class is fierce precisely because it is so central to the fashion industry. This also means the risk of someone registering a name similar to yours is real. Filing early is not just advisable. It is essential.
Ready to register your Class 25 trademark? Legal Trunk can help you file correctly and confidently.
Class 18: Leather Goods, Bags, and Accessories
Class 18 covers the accessories side of fashion. If your brand includes handbags, wallets, belts, luggage, or any item made from leather or imitation leather, this is the class you need alongside Class 25.
Class 18 covers:
- Handbags, clutches, tote bags, and shoulder bags
- Wallets, purses, cardholders, and key cases
- Luggage, travel bags, backpacks, and duffel bags
- Belts as accessories, not clothing
- Briefcases and laptop bags
- Umbrellas and parasols
- Items made from leather, imitation leather, suede, or similar materials
What it does not cover:
- Clothing made from leather, such as leather jackets or leather trousers (those sit in Class 25 even though the material is leather)
- Jewellery and watches (those sit in Class 14)
This distinction matters enormously for Nigerian fashion entrepreneurs who sell across categories. A designer who sells an Ankara dress and a matching bag needs Class 25 for the dress and Class 18 for the bag. A single-class registration for Class 25 leaves the bag entirely unprotected.
Many Nigerian brands have built significant commercial value around their accessories lines. Bag designers, leather goods artisans, and accessory brands who operate independently of clothing should register in Class 18 as their primary class.
Class 24: Textiles and Fabrics
Class 24 is the class for fabric as a product. If your business involves selling fabric, whether Ankara, adire, aso-oke, lace, or any other textile, this is where your trademark protection lives for that specific product.
Class 24 covers:
- Woven, printed, and knit fabrics
- Ankara, adire, aso-oke, kampala, and other traditional Nigerian textiles
- Lace fabrics sold by the yard or in sets
- Bed linen, table linen, and bath linen
- Duvets, duvet covers, pillowcases, and cushion covers
- Fabric for making clothing, sold as a material rather than as a finished garment
- Household textiles and furnishing fabrics
What it does not cover:
- Finished clothing made from those fabrics (that sits in Class 25)
- Raw yarn or thread used to weave or knit fabric (that sits in Class 23)
- Embroidery, ribbons, or trim applied to fabric (that sits in Class 26)
The Class 24 versus Class 25 distinction is one of the most misunderstood splits in Nigerian fashion trademark law. Here is the clearest way to think about it:
If you sell the fabric by the yard, the roll, or the set, that is Class 24.
If you cut, sew, and sell it as a finished garment, that is Class 25.
If you do both, which is common for designers who sell their signature fabric as well as finished pieces, you need both classes registered separately.
Consider a brand that designs and sells a signature Ankara print fabric under their label, and also sells dresses made from that fabric. If they register only in Class 25, the fabric itself is unprotected. A competitor could sell the same fabric pattern under a similar name and there would be no registered trademark covering the fabric product. Registering in both Class 24 and Class 25 closes that gap.
Class 26: Lace, Embroidery, Buttons, and Hair Accessories
Class 26 is the most overlooked class in the Nigerian fashion industry, but it is relevant to more businesses than most people realise.
Class 26 covers:
- Lace as a material or trim
- Embroidery and embroidered pieces
- Ribbons, braid, and decorative trim
- Buttons, hooks and eyes, press studs, and fasteners
- Artificial flowers used as decoration
- Hair decorations including hairbands, clips, pins, and fascinators not made of precious metal
- Hair extensions, wigs, and hairpieces
- False nails
What it does not cover:
- Hair accessories made from precious metal (those sit in Class 14)
- Finished clothing that incorporates embroidery as part of the design (that sits in Class 25)
Who specifically needs Class 26 in the Nigerian fashion market:
Hair extension and wig brands. This is one of the most commercially significant applications of Class 26 in Nigeria. The hair industry is enormous, and brands selling wigs, weaves, hair extensions, and hairpieces need Class 26 to protect their brand in connection with those specific products.
Lace and trim suppliers. Businesses that supply lace, embroidery, buttons, and other haberdashery to designers and tailors register here for those products.
Accessory designers working in non-precious materials. Hair clips, headbands, fabric fascinators, and similar accessories that are not made of precious metal sit in Class 26 rather than Class 14.
Embroidery businesses. If your brand name is associated with custom embroidery services or embroidered products, Class 26 covers the goods component of that business.
Which Classes Does Your Fashion Business Actually Need?
Here is a straightforward breakdown based on the most common Nigerian fashion business types:
Clothing designer or brand: Class 25. If you also sell bags or accessories under the same brand name, add Class 18.
Shoe brand or footwear designer: Class 25. Footwear sits here alongside clothing.
Bag and accessories brand: Class 18 as your primary class. If you also sell clothing or scarves, add Class 25.
Fabric seller or textile merchant: Class 24. If you also produce finished garments from your fabrics, add Class 25.
Designer who sells both fabric and finished clothing: Class 24 and Class 25. Both are needed.
Hair extension, wig, or hairpiece brand: Class 26.
Hair accessories brand (clips, headbands, hairbands): Class 26, unless the accessories are made from precious metal, in which case Class 14.
Fashion brand covering clothing, bags, fabric, and accessories: You likely need Classes 18, 24, 25, and 26. Each protects a different part of your product range.
Haberdashery or trim supplier: Class 26.
The important thing to understand is that Nigeria does not allow multi-class applications. Each class is a separate application and a separate fee. But each one is also a separate line of protection. Skipping a class because of the cost and then needing to enforce rights in that category later is significantly more expensive than filing correctly from the start.
Common Mistakes Fashion Businesses Make with Trademark Classes in Nigeria
Registering in Class 25 and assuming everything is covered. Class 25 protects finished clothing, footwear, and headgear. It does not protect your fabric line, your bags, your accessories, or your hair products. A brand that sells across these categories and registers only in Class 25 has meaningful gaps in its protection.
Assuming the fabric and the clothing are the same class. They are not. A garment sewn from Ankara fabric and the Ankara fabric itself are different products sitting in different classes. Brands that sell both need both classes registered.
Not registering at all because the brand is still small. This is the most expensive mistake in the long run. Trademark protection in Nigeria operates on a first-to-file basis. A competitor can register your mark before you do and use that registration against you. The size of your business today is not the relevant consideration. The question is whether you want to own your brand name tomorrow.
Registering only the logo and not the brand name, or vice versa. Both the word mark (the name itself) and the device mark (the logo) can and should be registered separately. A registration for your logo does not prevent someone from trading under your name in plain text, and a word mark registration does not prevent someone from using a visually identical logo with a slightly different name.
Waiting until there is a problem. Trademark disputes in Nigeria are slow, expensive, and uncertain. The time to register is before someone else does, not after you have discovered the infringement.
What About Copyright? Does That Protect Fashion Designs in Nigeria?
This question comes up often so it is worth addressing directly.
Copyright in Nigeria protects original creative works: written content, photographs, music, films, and artistic works. Under the Copyright Act, an original fabric print design or a unique pattern created by a designer may attract copyright protection automatically from the moment it is created, without registration.
However, copyright protection for fashion is limited. It does not protect the cut or silhouette of a garment, which is considered a functional rather than artistic element. It may protect an original print design applied to fabric, but enforcing that protection without registration is difficult because proving ownership and originality requires evidence that can be hard to gather after the fact.
Trademark and copyright serve different functions. A trademark protects your brand identity in commerce, meaning the name, logo, or mark that consumers associate with your business. Copyright, where it applies, protects the original creative work itself. For most Nigerian fashion businesses, trademark registration is the more immediately actionable and commercially significant protection.
The Registration Process: What Happens After You Identify Your Classes
Once you know which classes you need, here is how registration works at NIPO:
- Availability search. Before filing, NIPO searches for existing or pending marks in your target class that could conflict with yours. This is a critical step. Filing without a search means you could spend over a year in the process only to receive a refusal because a similar mark already exists.
- File the application. Each class requires a separate application. Your application needs your full legal name, address, nationality, a clear image of your mark in the prescribed format (JPEG, minimum 1,200 dpi), and a specification of the goods you are seeking protection for within the class.
- NIPO reviews the application for distinctiveness and conflicts with existing marks. An Acceptance Letter typically arrives within one to three months.
- Your mark is published in the Nigerian Trademarks Journal for two months. During this period, third parties who believe your mark conflicts with theirs can file an opposition.
- Certificate of Registration. If no valid opposition is filed, you receive your certificate. The full process typically takes 12 to 18 months. Your trademark is then valid for seven years from the date of filing and can be renewed in 14-year cycles indefinitely.
Frequently Asked Questions
I sell clothing and bags under the same brand name. Do I need two separate applications?
Yes. Class 25 covers clothing and Class 18 covers bags. Since Nigeria does not permit multi-class applications, you need one application per class. Both applications can be filed at the same time and will carry the same brand name and logo.
Can someone register my brand name in a class I have not filed in?
Yes. This is one of the most important reasons to think carefully about your full product range before filing. If you register only in Class 25 and a competitor registers the same name in Class 18, they will own that mark for bags and accessories while you own it only for clothing. Filing across all the classes relevant to your business closes this gap.
I have been using my brand name for three years without registering. Am I protected?
Nigerian trademark law does recognise unregistered marks to a limited extent through the common law concept of passing off. However, pursuing a passing off claim requires you to prove established goodwill, misrepresentation, and damage, which is a higher evidential bar than relying on a registered trademark. Regardless of how long you have been trading under a name, registration is the only way to secure reliable, enforceable protection.
My brand sells internationally. Does Nigerian registration protect me abroad?
No. Trademark rights are territorial. Your NIPO registration protects your mark within Nigeria only. Since Nigeria is not a member of the Madrid Protocol, there is no international registration route that includes Nigeria. For each country where you want protection, you need a separate national filing.
What if my brand name is also my personal name?
Personal names can be registered as trademarks in Nigeria, but they are subject to examination for distinctiveness in the same way as any other mark. A stylised version of your name or your name combined with other distinctive elements generally has a stronger chance of acceptance.
How much does it cost to register across multiple classes?
The official NIPO filing fee is approximately USD 80 per class. If you need Classes 18, 24, 25, and 26, the official fees total approximately USD 320. Professional fees for filing, search, and management of the process are additional.
Ready to Protect Your Fashion Brand?
Nigeria’s fashion market is one of the fastest-growing in Africa, and competition for brand identity is intensifying every year. The designers and brands building lasting commercial value are the ones who treat their trademark as an asset from the beginning, not an afterthought.
Whether you are just launching your brand or have been operating for years without proper protection, the right time to register is now. The Legal Trunk team works with fashion entrepreneurs, designers, fabric merchants, and accessory brands across Nigeria to identify the right classes, conduct thorough availability searches, and manage the full registration process at NIPO.