WIPO — All Publications — Chidi Oguamanam

Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities’ Decolonial Struggle over Transplanted Western IP

How have Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities resisted the limitations to their knowledge systems arising from Western IP?

WIPO Intellectual Property, Genetic Resources and Traditional Knowledge Treaty: Unravelling the United States’ Isolationist Intellectual Property Diplomacy

Intellectual Property Forum
Issue 143 (March 2026)

The WIPO Treaty On Genetic Resources And Associated Traditional Knowledge: A Negotiating, Contextual And Conceptual Appraisal

Boston University International Law Journal
(Summer 2025)

Journal ArticleChidi OguamanamNovember 12, 2025IP and Knowledge Governance, Indigenous, Indigenous Knowledge, CBD, WIPO, IPLC

Digital Agriculture Will Perpetuate Injustice Unless Led From the Grassroots

Nature Food
(March 2025)

Information Systems and Digitization of Traditional Knowledge: Trends in Cultural Heritage and Memory Institutions and the Wipo Genetic Resources Treaty

The Journal of World Intellectual Property
(August 2025)

Journal ArticleChidi OguamanamSeptember 9, 2025IP and Knowledge Governance, Indigenous, Indigenous Knowledge, CBD, WIPO, IPLC

Regime Complex in Life Sciences Innovation: Disclosure of Source, Traditional Knowledge and Shifts in Intellectual Property and Knowledge Governance

International Review of Intellectual Property and Competition Law
(June 2025)

The 46th IGC, the 2024 Diplomatic Conference on Genetic Resources: Uncertain Times Ahead Chidi Oguamanam

Delegates and experts reconvened in Geneva for the 46th session of the World Intellectual Property Organization’s Intergovernmental Committee on Intellectual Property and Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge and Folklore (IGC 46).

WIPO-IGC 45: Bold and Strategic Moves Toward TK and TCE Text(s)

Delegates to the 45th Intergovernmental Committee (IGC) continued negotiations on Traditional Knowledge and Traditional Cultural Expressions.

ABS Canada's Professor Chidi Oguamanam awarded University Research Chair in Sustainable Bio-Innovation, Indigenous Knowledge Systems and Global Knowledge Governance

Professor Chidi Oguamanam has been named to the University of Ottawa's University Research Chair in Sustainable Bio-Innovation, Indigenous Knowledge Systems and Global Knowledge Governance. Research Chairs represent the University's top researchers and recognize their outstanding and important accomplishments.

WIPO-IGC 43: Logjam Over Two Genetic Resources Texts

Delegates met at the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in Geneva to resume the second round of negotiations for the 2022-23 biennium of the WIPO Intergovernmental Committee on Intellectual Property and Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge and Folklore (WIPO-IGC).

At Resumed ‘Post-Pandemic’ IGC Negotiations, Change in Committee Leadership Leaves Delegates Between Two Genetic Resources Texts

Delegates met at the World Intellectual Property Organization to resume the first round of negotiations for the 2022-23 biennium of the WIPO Intergovernmental Committee on Intellectual Property and Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge and Folklore (IGC).

Africa, Innovation, and the Fourth Industrial Revolution

The Third Industrial Revolution (3IR) provided perhaps the most significant insights into Africa’s potential to fast-track its march to sustainable development.

The Partnership Imperative for African Innovation in the Fourth Industrial Revolution

The entrepreneurial uptake of computer technology and the increasing digitisation have made Africa a source of intellectual power in the digital sphere.

TK and TCEs Again Under Focus at 37th WIPO IGC

On August 27, 2018, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Intergovernmental Committee on Intellectual Property and Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge and Folklore (IGC) reconvened in Geneva for its 37th session. The August 27-31 meeting is the third under the 2018-2019 biennium of the IGC and also the first opportunity for the experts to further advance negotiations on two texts for traditional knowledge (TK) and traditional cultural expressions (TCEs) under the current two-year program.

US Fails to Block Progress over Genetic Resources Text at WIPO-IGC 36

After six days of deliberations (June 24-29, 2018) to secure a mature text for the protection of genetic resources and associated traditional knowledge, delegates left the negotiations with mixed feeling while remaining resolute on the progress made. The mixed feeling arose from the decision of the United States and its ally, Japan, not to support the transmission of the resulting text of the negotiations: REV 2 to the 40th IGC as a consensus document pursuant to the ongoing mandate of the IGC for the current biennium.

Blog PostChidi OguamanamJuly 7, 2018Indigenous, USA, Japan, WIPO, Traditional Culture, Africa, Australia

US Fails to Block Progress over Genetic Resources Text at WIPO-IGC 36

On June 26, 2018, the long running World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Intergovernmental Committee on Intellectual Property and Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge and Folklore (IGC) reconvened in Geneva for its 36th session. Since 2000, the IGC has had a mandate to negotiate text-based instrument(s) for the effective protection of genetic resources, traditional knowledge and folklore (alternatively known as traditional cultural expressions).

Blog PostChidi OguamanamJune 27, 2018Africa, IP and Knowledge Governance, WIPO, Traditional Culture

WIPO Expert Committee on Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge and Traditional Cultural Expressions Takes Another Look at Draft Genetic Resources Text in 2018

For the 35th time in 18 years, experts have yet again gathered at the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) headquarters in Geneva where they are scheduled to remain in deliberation between March 19 and 23, 2018. This meeting of the WIPO IGC is at the instance of the body’s renewed mandate for the 2018 and 2019 biennium after it failed, last year, to secure the transition of its draft texts.

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