John Onyido

Practice Areas

John provides regular advisory to several local and multinational companies regarding the protection and enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs), data privacy & protection, as well as telecoms regulatory and compliance rights in Nigeria. His expertise extends to Competition & Consumer Protection Law, International Trade, Development and Economic Law, the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Judgments, Sovereign Debt Disputes and International Investment matters. He has settled appellate briefs before the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in collaboration with other attorneys on sensitive and pivotal issues under US Immigration

law and practice and served as lead Counsel in the judicial review of a significant administrative appeal over a professional licensing dispute in the healthcare industry before the Virginia Circuit Court.

Career

Prior to joining S.P.A Ajibade & Co, John was in private law practice in New York and had previously worked at Messrs. Allan & Ogunleye, and The Law Union (both in Nigeria) as well as with Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP., in Manhattan.

Expert in these Jurisdictions

John was admitted to the Nigerian Bar in 1990 and the New York State Bar in 2005. He is also admitted to practice before the New York Southern and Eastern District Courts, the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, and the United States Supreme Court.

Clients

A cross-section of previous and existing clients includes Guinness Plc., Société des Products Nestle SA, Groupe Danone, Coca Cola, Inc., United Distillers Plc., AlliedSignal Ltd., Nabisco Inc., Unilever Plc., Fan Milk International, MTN Nigeria, Voice Web International, OVH Energy, Overland Airways Ltd., Afriglobal Medicare Ltd, Meta (Facebook), Google, WhatsApp, and Voiceweb Inc.

Work Highlights

John was privy to several of the Qualcomm patent and licensing litigations with European telecom competitors and the LimeWire copyright infringement litigation filed by the major Media Companies and the Recording Industry Association of America against peer-to-peer internet users.

Professional Memberships

International Trademark Association’s [INTA], Intellectual Property Lawyers Association [IPLAN], Nigerian Bar Association [NBA], Anti- Counterfeiting Collaboration [ACC] etc.