A Senior Advocate of Nigeria and a lecturer in the School of Law and Security Studies, Babcock University, Ilisan-Remo, Prof. Bankole Sodipo, alongside other scholars and legal experts, have called for a review of Nigeria’s intellectual property laws to reflect the peculiarities of African society.
They argued that such reforms are necessary to enhance sustainability and boost wealth creation across the continent.
Sodipo made this call while addressing journalists on Wednesday during the 3rd International Law Conference of the university.
Themed “Law in the Realm of Technology and Sustainable Development Goals: From African Traditional Knowledge to Artificial Intelligence,” the conference explored how legal frameworks can adapt to evolving technological and cultural landscapes. Sodipo, a professor of Intellectual Property, Dispute Resolution, and Commercial Law, noted that the existing IP law is largely rooted in Western legal traditions, which often ignore Africa’s traditional knowledge systems and communal cultural practices.
“Intellectual property law seeks to protect and encourage creativity, inventiveness, and branding. However, traditional knowledge—like the herbs we drink for our health or our folklore—is passed down through oral tradition and communal ownership.
“The Western model, which requires individual authorship and written documentation, fails to accommodate these realities”, he explained.