THE CHALLENGES AND PROSPECTS ON LEVERAGING THE EVIDENTIAL POTENTIALS OF INTERNET ARCHIVE IN INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY LITIGATION IN NIGERIA

Internet archive

Abstract

The potentials of leveraging on the ‘Internet Archive,’ for useful retrieval records beneficial to human society cannot be over-emphasised. In fact, harvested records will redound as evidential value, more specifically in the regime of litigations. There is no gainsaying the fact that archival record will operate as a push-drive in harnessing and processing, most particularly intellectual property litigations. As a matter of fact, the internet archive, particularly its ‘way back’ machine, provides access to historical snapshots of websites, which almost all the time operates as a catalyst in harvesting invaluable data for establishing timelines of content use in trademark, patent and copyright disputes. The prospects for integrating the internet archive into Nigeria's IP litigation landscape are promising, suggesting that its use could foster a more robust intellectual property regime. Furthermore, the embrace of digital archives operates to strengthen IP enforcement and support innovation in Nigeria's evolving digital economy. It is against this background that the authors examine the subsisting challenges and prospects on leveraging on the available evidential potentials of archival records and harvested data in support of litigations in the regime of intellectual property in Nigeria, if regard is had to the fact, that Nigeria is a developing country. The paper therefore demonstrated that courts stand a good chance of utilizing these ‘archived records’ for many and diverse use, ranging, for instance, in enhancing the evidentiary process, promote transparency, and support fair use defences. The authors further maintained the presence of significant challenges, including the lack of subsisting legal frameworks to recognize archived content as admissible evidence. Consequent on the above, the paper demonstrated concerns over the authenticity of such data as well as limited awareness among legal practitioners on the relevance of internet archive.