Books
Opeyemi Oke: A Benchmark on the Bench (Esquire Publications, 2019)
Authored
“In this engrossing and commanding work, Chidi Oguamanam has penned a rigorous and compelling biography of a dedicated and learned jurist, Madam Justice Opeyemi Oke who, over the years, has earned an impeccable reputation for distinction, hard-work, and integrity. But none of these virtues surpasses her reputation for wisdom. Quietly breaking through the glass ceilings of a patriarchal. order, this self-effacing but brilliant legal mind has set the bar very high through both judicial ingenuity and administrative sagacity that has seen her sacrificially and tirelessly embody the trail-blazing judicial reforms in Lagos State over the decades. Justice Oke’s life story is exceptionally inspirational and it is brilliantly captured by the author as a treasured gift to all stakeholders in the legal profession: lawyers, jurists, law students, women of all professional stripes and the general public. It is a captivating work of art and scholarship.” - Ikechi Mgbeoji, Professor of Law, Osgoode Hall Law School (Toronto, Canada)
This is a thought-provoking book well beyond the ordinary biographical genre. As a biographer, Chidi Oguamanam masterfully curated a rich tapestry of the life and career of one of Nigeria’s finest trial judges: Hon. Justice Opeyemi Oke. The author explores an epic personal journey and the making of a remarkable woman, lawyer, and jurist in modern Nigeria.
Genetic Resources, Justice and Reconciliation: Canada and Global Access and Benefit Sharing (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019)
Edited
When the oral history of a medicinal plant as a genetic resource is used to develop a blockbuster drug, how is the contribution of indigenous peoples recognized in research and commercialization? What other ethical, legal, and policy issues come into play? Is it accurate for countries to self-identify as users or providers of genetic resources? This edited collection, which focuses on Canada, is the result of research conducted in partnership with indigenous peoples in that country, where melting permafrost and new sea lanes have opened the region's biodiversity, underscoring Canada's status as a user and provider of genetic resources and associated indigenous knowledge. This work is an important resource for scholars, corporations, indigenous peoples, policymakers, and concerned citizens as Canada and other countries take on the implementation of Access and Benefit Sharing policies over genetic resources and associated indigenous knowledge. This book is also available as Open Access.
Intellectual Property and Innovation: Collaborative Dynamics in Africa (Cape Town: UCT Press, 2014)
Co-edited with J. de Beer, C. Armstrong, and T. Schonwetter
Innovation and Intellectual Property: Collaborative Dynamics in Africa is an edited volume of real-world case studies examining innovators in nine countries – Egypt, Nigeria, Ghana, Ethiopia, Uganda, Kenya, Mozambique, Botswana and South Africa – across many sites of innovation and creativity including music, leather goods, textiles, cocoa, coffee, auto parts, traditional medicine, book publishing, biofuels and university research.
Various forms of intellectual property protection are explored: copyrights, patents, trademarks, geographical indications and trade secrets, as well as traditional and informal mechanisms of knowledge governance.
In the global knowledge economy, intellectual property (IP) rights – and the innovations they are meant to spur – are important determinants of progress. But what does this mean for the nations of Africa? One view is that strong IP protection can facilitate innovation in African settings. Others say that existing IP systems are simply not suited to the realities of African innovators.
This book, based on case studies and evidence collected through research across nine countries in Africa, sheds new light on the complex relationships between innovation and intellectual property. It covers findings from Egypt, Nigeria, Ghana, Ethiopia, Uganda, Kenya, Mozambique, Botswana and South Africa, across many sites of innovation and creativity including music, leather goods, textiles, cocoa, coffee, auto parts, traditional medicine, book publishing, biofuels and university research. Various forms of intellectual property protection are explored: copyrights, patents, trademarks, geographical indications and trade secrets, as well as traditional and informal mechanisms of knowledge governance.
Knowledge and Innovation in Africa: Scenarios for the Future (Cape Town: Open AIR Network, 2013)
Co-authored with S. Elahi, J. de Beer, D. Kawooya, and N. Rizk
This 2013 book is the product of three years of literature reviews, expert interviews, and scenario-building exercises by the Open AIR network.
The authors trace the contours of knowledge and innovation in Africa from the founding civilisations to today’s current realities, and then set out the drivers of change that can be expected to shape innovation systems on the continent between now and the year 2035. The volume then offers three plausible scenarios – elements of which are likely to emerge in various settings on the continent in the short- to medium-term. Each scenario raises different issues for control of, and access to, knowledge in Africa.
The key insight for policymakers, business leaders, scholars and civil society is that the question is not whether intellectual property (IP) rights will be relevant in the future, but rather which rights will be most important in different scenarios.
The book is in full colour and richly illustrated with maps, charts and photos.
Intellectual Property in Global Governance: A Development Question (New York: Routledge, 2012)
Authored
Intellectual Property in Global Governance critically examines the evolution of international intellectual property law-making from the build up to the TRIPS Agreement, through the TRIPS and post-TRIPS era. The book focuses on a number of thematic intellectual property issue linkages, exploring the formal and informal institutional interactions and multi-stakeholder holder intrigues implicated in the global governance of intellectual property. Using examples from bio-technology, bio-diversity, bio-prospecting and bio-piracy it investigates the shift or concentration in the focus of innovation from physical to life sciences and the ensuing changes in international intellectual property law making and their implications for intellectual property jurisprudence. It examines the character of the reception, resistance and various nuanced reactions to the changes brought about by the TRIPS Agreement, exploring the various institutional sites and patterns of such responses, as well as the escalation in the issue-linkages associated with the concept and impact of intellectual property law.
Drawing upon multiple methodological approaches including law and legal theory; regime theory, globalization and global governance Chidi Oguamanam explores the intellectual property dynamics in the "Global Knowledge Economy" focusing on digitization and information revolution phenomenon and the concept of a post-industrial society. The book articulates an agenda for global governance of intellectual property law in the 21st century and speculates on the future of intellectual property in North-South relations.
International Law and Indigenous Knowledge: Intellectual Property, Plant Biodiversity and Traditional Medicine (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2006)
Authored
In the past, efforts to reconcile the western concept of intellectual property with indigenous knowledge have not taken into account the schism between this knowledge and western scientific forms. As knowledge assumes increasing importance in the quest for self-determination, cultural survival, and economic empowerment, the gulf between indigenous and western scientific knowledge assumes a new meaning. In International Law and Indigenous Knowledge, Chidi Oguamanam argues that the crisis of legitimacy indigenous knowledge poses for the intellectual property system compels a re-thinking of the concept of intellectual property itself.
Drawing on interdisciplinary research, International Law and Indigenous Knowledge takes as its framework the legal doctrinal methodology, focusing on international legal and policy developments regarding the protection of indigenous knowledge. Using traditional medicine and biodiversity to illustrate his thesis, Oguamanam argues that recent international legal and policy developments in the direction of a cross-cultural approach to intellectual property rights are desirable trends. Such developments come closer to addressing the rift between western and non-western knowledge systems as well as the crisis of legitimacy in the conventional intellectual property system.