Papers by Chidi Oguamanam
The MIT Press eBooks, Aug 25, 2020
In presenting this thesis in partial fulfilment of the requirements for an advanced degree at the... more In presenting this thesis in partial fulfilment of the requirements for an advanced degree at the University of British Columbia, I agree that the Library shall make it freely available for reference and study. I further agree that permission for extensive copying of this thesis for scholarly purposes may be granted by the head of my department or by his or her representatives. It is understood that copying or publication of this thesis for financial gain shall not be allowed without my written permission.
Social Science Research Network, Aug 31, 2019
In the past, efforts to reconcile the western concept of intellectual property with indigenous kn... more In the past, efforts to reconcile the western concept of intellectual property with indigenous knowledge have not taken into account the schism between this knowledge and western scientific forms. As knowledge assumes increasing importance in the quest for self-determination, cultural survival, and economic empowerment, the gulf between indigenous and western scientific knowledge assumes a new meaning. In 'International Law and Indigenous Knowledge', Chidi Oguamanam argues that the crisis of legitimacy indigenous knowledge poses for the intellectual property system compels a re-thinking of the concept of intellectual property itself.Drawing on interdisciplinary research, 'International Law and Indigenous Knowledge' takes as its framework the legal doctrinal methodology, focusing on international legal and policy developments regarding the protection of indigenous knowledge. Using traditional medicine and biodiversity to illustrate his thesis, Oguamanam argues that recent international legal and policy developments in the direction of a cross-cultural approach to intellectual property rights are desirable trends. Such developments come closer to addressing the rift between western and non-western knowledge systems as well as the crisis of legitimacy in the conventional intellectual property system.
University of British Columbia Press eBooks, Mar 6, 2016
Cambridge University Press eBooks, Sep 17, 2018
This chapter examines the Open African Innovation Research (Open AIR) network as a unique cross-r... more This chapter examines the Open African Innovation Research (Open AIR) network as a unique cross-regional research platform. It links empirical and theoretical perspectives on PPPs to the key operational elements of Open AIR, including its core driving factors relevant to the development gap associated with IP and knowledge governance in Africa. In this regard, the chapter finds that insights from Open AIR’s construct and research findings, which flow from its activities as a research-driven rather than a product-driven initiative, can shine light on how PPPs (or cross-sector partnerships in general) can be better exploited and reengineered beyond their current and ad hoc interventionist outlook, in order to make them serve as effective sustainable development vehicles. The chapter begins with a contextualization of PPPs in global governance generally and their evolution within sustainable development efforts. It then introduces Open AIR. The following section links various elements of Open AIR to potential characteristics of PPPs, emphasizing six features that have resulted in successful interventions: Cross-sector representation; novel approaches to problem-solving; cross-regional approaches; complex methods; networking of networks; interdisciplinary analysis; and a shared vision. The chapter then discusses the nexus of partnerships such as Open AIR to sustainable development, and reflects on policy ramifications, practical lessons, and limitations of the cross-regional research partnership model applicable to development PPPs.
Cambridge University Press eBooks, Sep 5, 2015
Foreign encroachments on poor peoples’ agricultural land reveal a discernible shift from the Nort... more Foreign encroachments on poor peoples’ agricultural land reveal a discernible shift from the North-South traffic of biophysical resources toward a new and increasing South-South pattern. Overall, the convergence of bioenergy, food security and land grabbing raises myriad questions, not the least of which are those bordering on sustainable development. The bioenergy drive exposes “the extent to which capitalism externalizes its costs” through market-based environmental policies in which biophysical resources, including cropland and forests in the most impoverished regions of the world, especially Africa, are converted into “a new profit frontier” and disguised as “market environmentalism.” Current hasty attempts to legitimize land grabbing through ad hoc codes of conduct warrant careful scrutiny. They have yet to account for underlying assumptions of the land grab phenomena which, critically evaluated, represent unconscionable subsidization of the wasteful affluence and opportunistic greed of the traditional and neo-powerful by the world’s weakest.
Routledge eBooks, Mar 1, 2013
Acknowledgements x i ForeumrdbyPeterK.ru xiii List of abbreviations xvn PARTI 1 1 Introduction an... more Acknowledgements x i ForeumrdbyPeterK.ru xiii List of abbreviations xvn PARTI 1 1 Introduction and general outlook 3 Methodological framework 13 Some caveats 16 Chapter synopsis 17 Notes 19 2 Global governance, intellectual property and the knowledge economy 20 Globalization 20 Global governance 23 Defining global governance 25 Globalization and global governance in mutual tangle 28 The post-industrial society 31 The 4Bs: biodiversity, bioprospecting, biotechnology and biopiracy 34 Biodiversity 34 Bioprospecting 35 Biotechnology 37 Biopiracy 39 Conclusion 42 Notes 42 viii Contents
Cambridge University Press eBooks, Dec 20, 2018
This chapter uses selected Canadian case studies to explore the use and exploitation of genetic r... more This chapter uses selected Canadian case studies to explore the use and exploitation of genetic resources and associated Indigenous or traditional knowledge in Canada; first, to demonstrate that biopiracy is a felt and increasing reality in Canada, and second, to interrogate the potentials and pitfalls of existing Canadian access and benefit-sharing (ABS) policy, especially with regard to its failure to incorporate Indigenous peoples. It argues that a combination of progressive research and entrepreneurship on the one hand, and the opening up of Canada’s Arctic region and its bounty of marine genetic resources on the other, will only produce new tensions over ABS. This wealth of genetic resources, the policy imperative of reconciliation with Canada’s Indigenous peoples, and the urgent need to sustain biodiversity and combat climate change will heighten existing tensions between Indigenous peoples and local communities and other potential ABS stakeholders in the Canadian context. Canada’s position as both a producer and user of genetic resources will therefore become more pronounced. Consequently, the dynamic between researchers, industry and Indigenous peoples will become increasingly fraught and problematic unless urgent steps are taken to implement an Indigenous-sensitive ABS policy in close partnership with Indigenous peoples across Canada.
Canadian Journal of Law and Technology, 2006
Social Science Research Network, Jul 31, 2015
Less developed countries, especially those in Africa, are buffeted by a complex combination of fa... more Less developed countries, especially those in Africa, are buffeted by a complex combination of factors in their bid to realize the right to adequate food pursuant to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. Integral to that right are the ideas of freedom from hunger, poverty eradication, food security and food sovereignty. A number of factors assailing the realization of the right to adequate food in Africa include extreme weather conditions, via climate change dynamics; dysfunctional governments, political corruption, infrastructural deficits, and gaps in food and agricultural policies. Less obvious factors with potential to undermine the right to food include intellectual property and free trade; transformations in agricultural innovations and production, such as genetic modifications, monoculture and globalization of large scale industrial agriculture, intensification of mining and extractive industrial activities and, lately, the phenomenon of land grab. This article revisits the context for the introduction of IP in agriculture and the interplay of these enumerated factors and maps them onto the work of UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in its elaboration of the right to adequate food. It argues that even in the perceived negative impacts on the right to food of international IP and trade law obligations of African states, they still have the leverage to insist upon and to develop context-sensitive agricultural policies in the service of human right to adequate food by drawing inspiration from other developing countries that have maintained the primacy of the right to health over unfavorable patent laws.
Edward Elgar Publishing eBooks, Jan 9, 2016
Europe invented the modern patent system. Fillipo Brunelleschi, the 14th-century avant-guard Vene... more Europe invented the modern patent system. Fillipo Brunelleschi, the 14th-century avant-guard Venetian architect, laid the foundation for that system by securing the right to commercial exploitation of his invention through blackmail. Since then, the patent system and its reputation has been no stranger to controversy. After its consolidation, the modern patent system has resisted change except when change serves the interests of its architects and sponsors. On that basis, the recent history of the patent system reflects strategic accommodation of inventions in the realms of chemistry, life sciences (bio-technologies) and, lately, business methods and inventions in the information and communication technologies. These developments depict the convenient, albeit discriminatory malleability of the patent system.Historically, that plasticity of the patent system has not been invoked to accommodate traditional knowledge. When it comes to traditional knowledge, the patent system relapses into questionable orthodoxy as a rigid creation incapable of recognizing alternative forms of innovation outside the paradigm of western science and technology. How to deal with traditional knowledge remains a thorn in the side of the patent system. The subject of traditional knowledge is arguably the single most enduring source of pressure on the patent system through its nearly six-hundred-year history. This chapter links the patent system’s interface with traditional knowledge to the latter’s experience with and treatment in the history, philosophy and sociology of science. It argues that despite the patent system’s opposition to traditional knowledge, at both practical and theoretical levels, as a matter of current reality, traditional knowledge has defied that system without much notice being taken of this transformation. Indeed, traditional knowledge challenges the patent system to re-think the importance of epistemic pluralism and equity in innovation and knowledge production which that system has historically ignored.
Acknowledgements x i ForeumrdbyPeterK.ru xiii List of abbreviations xvn PARTI 1 1 Introduction an... more Acknowledgements x i ForeumrdbyPeterK.ru xiii List of abbreviations xvn PARTI 1 1 Introduction and general outlook 3 Methodological framework 13 Some caveats 16 Chapter synopsis 17 Notes 19 2 Global governance, intellectual property and the knowledge economy 20 Globalization 20 Global governance 23 Defining global governance 25 Globalization and global governance in mutual tangle 28 The post-industrial society 31 The 4Bs: biodiversity, bioprospecting, biotechnology and biopiracy 34 Biodiversity 34 Bioprospecting 35 Biotechnology 37 Biopiracy 39 Conclusion 42 Notes 42 viii Contents
The Dalhousie Law Journal, 2004
Social Science Research Network, 2017
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Papers by Chidi Oguamanam