The Global Intellectual Property System and Sub-Saharan Africa: a Prognostic Reflection *

Adewopo, Adebambo

doi:10.4324/9781315254111-7

Cited by 5 publications

(3 citation statements)

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“…Three patent offices in sub‐Saharan Africa represent most of the countries and the majority of economic activity of the subcontinent. These include the national patent office of South Africa, in Pretoria (Barratt, Snyman, & Lutchman, ; Naidoo, ; Pechacek, ), and two regional patent offices—the African Regional Intellectual Property Organization (ARIPO), based in Harare, Zimbabwe (Adewopo, ; ARIPO, ; Nwauche, ), and the Organisation Africaine de la Propriété Intellectuelle (OAPI), based in Yaounde, Cameroon (Adewopo, ; Botoy, ; Nwauche, ; OAPI, )—for which member countries are shown in Figure . The vast majority of patent filings in sub‐Saharan Africa occur at one of these three main offices.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Inventions and patenting in Africa: Empirical trends from 1970 to 2010

Graff

Pardey

2019

World Intellectual Property

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Economic development is increasingly dependent upon on utilizing new knowledge to innovate and create value, even in traditional industries and in low‐income countries. This analysis uses evidence on patent families to assess innovation activity throughout sub‐Saharan Africa. We find patent activity in sub‐Saharan Africa—both by African inventors and by foreign inventors—is comparable to similar regions around the world, when conditioned on economic size. Patent filings in Africa have grown, particularly, since the mid‐1990s, but at different rates within different African jurisdictions. Types of technologies being patented in Africa have remained stable over 30 years, with most in pharmaceuticals, chemistry, biotechnology, and engineering. The majority of patent filings in Africa are from Europe, the United States, and other high income countries. Yet, in South Africa, between 15% and 20% of patent filings are by residents of South Africa, and 3% are from other developing and emerging economies. Only a small share of inventions globally are made in sub‐Saharan Africa, but for those inventions that do arise in Africa, foreign filings are made widely outside of Africa.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Inventions and patenting in Africa: Empirical trends from 1970 to 2010

Graff

Pardey

2019

World Intellectual Property

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“…IPRs systems were introduced in Nigeria during the colonial era, as was the case for some former sub‐Saharan British colonies such as Ghana and Kenya (Adewopo, ; Bentley, ; Okediji, ). Similar to Ghana and Kenya, the IPRs systems introduced in Nigeria excluded plant variety protection, which is unsurprising because IPRs were not extended to plant varieties in Britain until 1964, four years after Nigeria had gained its independence .…”

Section: Plant Variety Protection Landscape In Nigeria: Current Positmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…While the Nigerian Government has demonstrated a lack of appreciation and prioritization of IPRs related issues, non‐state actors in the patent, trademark and plant variety protection related industries have also failed to promote industrial property reforms actively. Non‐state actors have been at the forefront of actively lobbying for copyright reforms; the book publishing industry and the Performing Musicians Associations of Nigeria (PMAN) primarily drove the three copyright reforms (Adewopo, ). In fact, the first copyright amendment in 1988 was passed two weeks after a nationwide protest organized by PMAN (Sodipo, ).…”

Section: Plant Variety Protection Landscape In Nigeria: Current Positmentioning

confidence: 99%

Examining plant variety protection in Nigeria: Realities, obligations and prospects

Adebola

2018

World Intellectual Property

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Nigeria does not currently have a plant variety protection system. Three key reasons why Nigerian law and policy makers should pay attention to plant variety protection are the country's evolving agricultural sector, susceptibility to external pressures and pending international obligations. From 2010, successive Nigerian governments have promoted private sector investments in agriculture, contributing to the increase in the number of agribusinesses in the country. Agribusinesses tend to lobby for the introduction or reform of national plant variety protection systems to suit their business interests. Furthermore, as a founding member of the World Trade Organization (WTO), Nigeria has a pending obligation under Article 27.3(b) of the Agreement on Trade‐Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) to protect plant varieties through a patent system, a sui generis system, or a combination of systems. This article argues that Nigeria should proactively introduce a plant variety protection system designed to suit its socio‐economic realities before it is pressured to adopt an unsuitable system. In assessing the options under TRIPS vis‐a‐vis the small‐scale centered agricultural sector in Nigeria, the article finds that the best‐suited option for the country is a sui generis system which protects the interests of both small‐scale farmers and agribusinesses.

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African Coalitions and Global Economic Governance

Nelson

2016

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The proliferation of international institutions with overlapping scope and authority over issue areas creates strategic dilemmas for all states. While African states are often considered marginalised in world politics and global markets, Michael Byron Nelson shows how coalitions can form a crucial part of African strategies to influence international institutions and achieve results. Building a bottom-up analysis of global governance, through legal analysis, content analysis, and in-depth interviews, Nelson illuminates institutional and coalition dynamics through case studies of three key areas - food safety, intellectual property, and agricultural trade. He highlights the difficulties encountered by coalitions attempting to navigate institutional systems, emerging from institutional thickness (increasing the number of institutions involved) and integration (increasing the formal linkages between those institutions). Finally, Nelson shows how increasing the hierarchy of an institutional system, by creating a focal point on a single institution, can make coordination easier for coalitions.

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The Global Intellectual Property System and Sub-Saharan Africa: a Prognostic Reflection *

Cited by 5 publications

References 0 publications

Inventions and patenting in Africa: Empirical trends from 1970 to 2010

Inventions and patenting in Africa: Empirical trends from 1970 to 2010

Examining plant variety protection in Nigeria: Realities, obligations and prospects

African Coalitions and Global Economic Governance

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