Decolonising Intellectual Property Law

An Afrocentric Approach

Jade Kouletakis, Nkem Itanyi

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2025
• eBook ISBN: 9781040438749
• Topic: Law
• Subtopic: Copyright Law
• Index: Law

This book advocates for an Afrocentric approach to intellectual property (IP) law, using lessons from Nigeria's past to encourage reform for the future of Africa's legal IP landscape.

Highlighting the Eurocentric influence on the history of intellectual property law in Africa, the book demonstrates how this contradicts traditional African community culture. This book makes the case for legitimising cultural expressions of traditional communities despite the western legal framework within which they exist, reimagining a decolonised IP framework whereby African histories are centred. Questioning the fundamentals of the current IP landscape, such as the concept of eligibility in copyright which developed alongside European technological advances, the book also details the role of the courts in resolving IP disputes. It highlights Africa as a powerhouse of original, autonomous innovation, values, and traditions which predate the West's concept of intellectual property. It illustrates the African experience of intellectual property from a pro-African perspective as shared by African authors.

This book will be of interest to researchers in the field of intellectual property, copyright, and patent law, as well as African law.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Endorsements
• Half-Title
• Series
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of contributors
• Foreword
• Introduction: Rewriting the history of intellectual property law in Africa – a decolonisation perspective
• 1 Decolonising copyright theory: Justifying copyright ownership through the prism of the United Nations’ developmental agenda
• 2 From moonlight tales to town halls to cinemas: Customary copyright practices and performances that led to Nollywood in Nigeria
• 3 Traditional peoples in Africa and intellectual property rights: Losing the status of their jurisprudence and knowledge systems
• 4 Technology, intellectual property rights protection, and Nigerian development
• 5 Apprenticeship system (Igba Boyi) of preserving Indigenous knowledge in Igbo Land, Southeast Nigeria and technology transfer in patent law: A necessary linkage
• 6 An overview of the patenting scheme: The Nigerian story
• 7 Decolonisation of methods of medicine production and patents in Nigeria: The dilemma of colonial mentality on traditional medicine
• 8 A comparative study of African and Western mediation cultures with a focus on the music industry
• Conclusion: From passive to active voice, or the start of a conversation with Africa
• Index