Intellectual Property

China is the largest developing country with a GDP of USD17.82 trillion, while Africa boasts of a conglomeration of the highest number of developing countries under the largest regional free trade mechanism – the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) – with a collective GDP of USD3.4 trillion. China is Africa’s largest bilateral trade partner. Trade between China and Africa stood at USD282 billion in 2023. China and Africa appreciate the significance of IP rights to fostering bilateral, and intra-regional (Africa), trade. Little wonders, therefore, international cooperation on IP rights forms a key strategy for achieving the objectives of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), and the AfCFTA agreement. As the 9th Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), which was established in 2000, holds in China from 4-6 September with possible focus on green energy, ICTs and technology development, it is important to examine the continued prominence of IP issues in China-Africa relations.

The News and Events category publishes the latest News and Events relating to International Economic Law relating to Africa and the Global South. Every week, Afronomicslaw.org receive the News and Events in their e-mail accounts. The News and Events published every week include conferences, major developments in the field of International Economic Law in Africa at the national, sub-regional and regional levels as well as relevant case law. News and Events with a Global South focus are also often included.

In different epochs of our world, the idea of copyright has been thought about and debated by different scholars and philosophers. Most commonly, such debates find resonance in scholarly interlocutory about intellectual property law justificatory theories. On limited occasions, copyright scholarship ventures into studying the jurisprudence of copyright, that is the consciousness and the conscience of the discipline. In his offering, The Right to Research in Africa: Exploring the Copyright and Human Rights Interface, Oriakhogba remarkably studies copyright in the context of Human Rights. From the onset, it is refreshing that Oriakhogba takes the task of engaging copyright outside of the strict positivist and largely mercantilist strictures that often insist on thinking about copyright purely within the ambit of trade. The book’s argument is propounded in five chapters. Following the introduction, the second chapter examines the state of research in Africa, and the challenge that copyright poses to the question of access to information. The third chapter places its focus on international and regional human rights framework. The fourth chapter, which is the focus of this essay, discusses the national constitutions and frameworks for the protection of human rights to ascertain whether they support the development of the right to research. The fifth chapter, which concludes the book, summarily uses the insights from prior chapter’s to substantively respond to the question whether the right to research is justifiable in the context of Africa.

The Right to Research in Africa: Exploring the Interface between Copyright and Human Rights, a book authored by Desmond Oriakhogba, was published by Springer Nature in 2023. The book examined international and regional human rights instruments to which African countries have subscribed, as well as those relevant to the African context, and the national bills of rights and constitutions in Africa with the aim of constructing an explicit right to research in Africa.

The special issue aims to spot the incommensurable potential of African heritage and encourage its local protection for the benefit of local communities and sustainable development. It also aims to highlight the promises and pitfalls of current international cultural heritage law in safeguarding African cultural heritage and harnessing its potential for promoting sustainable development. International cultural heritage law has developed using European conceptions of cultural property protection. As a result, it rarely reflects current African realities. Are there ways to adapt or use the existing legal frameworks to promote cultural protection and sustainable development in Africa? Discussions on alternatives for protecting African cultural heritage at the regional and continental levels, or reviews of any such extant mechanisms, are encouraged. Good practices that African countries can learn from or export to other countries are also welcome. Pertinent case studies are welcome too.

This is the second collaboration by experts in the field of IP law, Dr. Desmond Oriakhogba and Dr Ifeoluwa Olubiyi, who have come together again to make substantial changes to the first edition of their text which assessed the theories, practices, and emerging trends of IP law in Nigeria. In their resourceful second edition, the authors have taken upon themselves the responsibility of analyzing the dynamic realm of IP law, and how it continues to shape and protect IP property rights in an increasingly multifaceted and interrelated world. They recognize that the Nigerian IP law landscape will need to keep up with technological advancements in the space even as technology continues to develop.

We hope the papers in this symposium will contribute to the ongoing efforts worldwide to achieve epistemological and methodological diversity in the IEL discipline. As a new Forum, we aim to remain flexible, experimental and responsive to the changing landscape in IEL. We will like to take this opportunity to thank the academics who have supported the Academic Forum over the last two years. We hope we can continue to count on your support as we devise robust and practical ways to decolonise and pluralise IEL research, scholarship and practice as a counterpoint to the dominant Western-centric IEL imagination.

Oke’s book Patents, Human Rights and Access to Medicines, is a timely and valuable contribution to the literature in this area. Its timeliness is due to the global context of the COVID-19 pandemic since 2019. The discussion of the import of patents to access to medicines, from a human rights lens is a critical endeavour which has been undertaken by several scholars. The seminal Intellectual Property, Human Rights and Access to Medicines-A Selected and Annotated Bibliography, now in its 3rd edition (Velásquez, Correa and Ido, 2020) curates the majority of this literature.

The book is a must-read for policymakers, governments, regional communities, students, researchers, health practitioners and anyone that may be interested in 'the access to medicine for all' campaign. The depth of analysis and critical thinking renders the author's arguments very persuasive and practical. It will stimulate the readers to view patent law and policy as a ‘work in progress’ rather than being ‘cast in stone’ and get them thinking about how it can be further improved. The book is highly recommended.

The Forum welcomes submissions covering a wide range of international economic law topics – trade, investment, finance, tax, labor, intellectual property, data, and other topics reflective of the broad nature of the field. Scholars who have previously presented in the IEL‐Forum are not eligible to apply.