Nigerian Copyright Reform and Implications for Access to Teaching and Learning Materials (TLMs) in the Digital Age

This article examines the extent to which the provisions of Nigeria’s draft Copyright Bill promote access to teaching and learning materials (TLMs), with such access framed as an important public interest goal. The article highlights the weaknesses in the extant Nigerian copyright statute with regard to TLM access, and examines the extent to which the provisions of the draft Bill would provide improvement. The article concludes that while the draft Bill provides significant improvements in respect of TLM access, it also contains significant weaknesses and gaps which Nigerian lawmakers should seek to address.CA201

Promoting creative economies in Nigeria and South Africa through communal and collaborative intellectual property rights strategies

The contention against and for extending intellectual property rights (IPRs) to traditional cultural expressions (TCEs) is strong on both sides: on one hand IPRs remain largely incompatible with TCEs and inadequate for safeguarding them. On the other hand, TCEs need protection in the interest of both the knowledge and their owners. The main challenges for Nigeria and South Africa as developing African countries in harnessing the benefits of their creative economy by exploiting the potential of their TCEs, particularly tradition-based arts and crafts, are tied to these contentions. IPRs remain the dominant framework for reaping the benefits of the creative economy; yet there are conceptual and practical challenges in applying IPRs to fully exploit the economic values of TCEs. Adopting a desktop and library-based research approach, this thesis seeks to resolve this dilemma by relying instead on alternative interpretations of narratives that underpin the dilemma, to justify the protection of tradition-based resources via IPRs. It also relies on the utilitarian outcomes from exploiting TCEs as valid rationales for the use of IPRs by the two study countries to fully exploit the economic benefits of their tradition-based arts and crafts. It examines how communal IPRs constitute a strong point of convergence between IPR and TCEs in ways that make them compatible and suitable measures to help derive greater benefits from TCEs in the market environment. It highlights the connections between the sector and the creative economy, and the socio-economic benefits of this nexus as justification for promoting, protecting and preserving tradition-based arts and crafts; and the suitability of communal IPRs in achieving these tripartite objectives. It concludes that the extant laws of the two countries do not adequately support the effective use of communal IPRs to achieve the objectives as such, and makes recommendations for addressing the gaps

Innovation & intellectual property: collaborative dynamics in Africa

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. The picture emerging from the empirical research presented in this volume is one in which innovators in diverse African settings share a common appreciation for collaboration and openness. And thus, when African innovators seek to collaborate, they are likely to be best-served by IP approaches that balance protection of creative, innovative ideas with information-sharing and open access to knowledge. The authors, who come from a range of disciplines, are all experts in their fields, working together through the Open African Innovation Research and Training (Open A.I.R.) network