Chidi Oguamanam

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Dr. Chidi Oguamanam, Faculty of Law (Common Law Section) at University of Ottawa, is a Full Professor affiliated with the three centres of excellence: the Centre for Law, Technology and Society; Centre for Environment and Global Sustainability; and Centre for Health Law, Policy, and Ethics. He is also a member of the International Law Group. Dr. Oguamanam holds Research Chair in Bio-Innovation, Indigenous Knowledge Systems and Global Knowledge Governance at the University of Ottawa. He is the Director of Access and Benefit Sharing Canada (ABS Canada) and the Co-founder and Co-director of the Open African Innovation Research (OpenAIR) Network. He holds several senior research fellowships with many institutions, including the University of Cape Town Intellectual Property Unit and the Centre for International Sustainable Development Law. He is a Fellow of the African Academy of Sciences and inducted to the Royal Society of Canada College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists. He is currently an Adjunct Professor at the School of Law, University of Venda in South Africa. Dr. Oguamanam is called to the Bar in Nigeria and Canada and is a member of the Nigerian Bar Association and Nova Scotia’s Barristers’ Society.

Dr. Oguamanam practiced intellectual property and corporate law prior to the commencement of his academic journey that started with graduate studies at the University of British Columbia, where he obtained his LL.M. and Ph.D. degrees in law. He began his academic career as a Fellow of the Canada Institutes of Health Research Program in Health Law and Ethics of Health Research at Dalhousie University. He later joined the Schulich School of Law (formerly Dalhousie University Law School) where he taught several courses including Contract and Judicial Decision-Making, Commercial Law (Sale of Goods), Law and Technology, Advanced Intellectual Property, Intellectual Property and Commercialization Placement. In 2008, he became an Adjunct Professor at the Case Western Reserve Law School in Cleveland, Ohio where he taught Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Knowledge and International Law. At Dalhousie University, Dr. Oguamanam had administrative responsibility as the Acting and subsequently the substantive Director of the Law and Technology Institute (2007-2011). He joined the University of Ottawa in 2011 and continues to teach courses at the Juris Doctor and graduate levels, and to actively engage in graduate supervision in his diverse areas of interdisciplinary expertise in commercial law, intellectual property law, technology law, food and agriculture law, global governance of genetic resources, access and benefit sharing, biotechnology and biodiversity conservation, innovation, Indigenous knowledge systems and global knowledge governance. 

Dr. Oguamanam has diverse interdisciplinary research interests in the area of global knowledge governance in general, especially as manifested in the dynamics of intellectual property and technology law with emphasis on biodiversity, biotechnology, and agricultural biotechnology. He identifies the policy and practical contexts for the exploration of the intersections of knowledge systems, particularly western science and the traditional knowledge of Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities within the broader development discourse and paradigm.  He is interested in the global institutional and regime dynamics for negotiating access and distributional challenges regarding the optimization of benefits of innovation by stakeholders.  He has written and published several articles on international intellectual property law-making, biotechnology in the context of health and agriculture, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous knowledge, farmers’ rights, access and benefit sharing over genetic resources, environmental law and biodiversity conservation, the policy and legal intersections of traditional and hi-tech agricultural practices, the documentation and digitization of local knowledge systems, globalization, complementary and alternative medicine (CAM), medical ethics, nutrition, public health law and policy, colonialism and the legal profession, and the Nigerian movie industry (Nollywood). In addition to public speaking engagements nationally and internationally, Dr. Oguamanam provides technical and expert consulting and support services in his areas of work for States and sub-State actors, intergovernmental bodies, and Indigenous and local communities in developed and newly industrializing countries and elsewhere. He is the author of several books, refereed journal articles, commissioned reports, op-eds, and reviews. Some of his books include “International Law and Indigenous Knowledge: Intellectual Property, Plant Biodiversity, and Traditional Medicine” (University of Toronto Press, 2010), “Intellectual Property in Global Governance: A Development Question” (Routledge 2011), and “Genetic Resource Justice and Reconciliation” (Cambridge, 2019).

In 2023, Dr. Oguamanam and Jeremy de Beer, the co-founders of OpenAIR Network, were recognized by the SSHRC Impact Awards for outstanding social sciences and humanities research, research training, knowledge mobilization and outreach activities. In addition to his work in several intergovernmental organizations, Dr. Oguamanam also contributes to the work of the World Intellectual Property Organization’s (WIPO) expert Committee on Intellectual Property and Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge and Traditional Cultural Expressions (IGC). The IGC is tasked with treaty-making on these subject matters. Dr. Oguamanam was one of the global experts involved in the negotiations of the WIPO Treaty on Intellectual Property, Genetic Resources, and Associated Traditional Knowledge, concluded on May 24, 2024. 

1. Chidi Oguamanam, “The WIPO Treaty on Genetic Resources and Associated Traditional Knowledge: A Negotiation, Contextual and Conceptual Appraisal” (forthcoming 43 Boston University International Law Journal, 2025).
2. Chidi Oguamanam, “Regime Comple in Life Sciences Innovation, Disclosure of Source, Traditional Knowledge and Shifts in Intellectual Property and Knowledge Governance” (2025) 56 International Review of Intellectual Property and Competition Law 877-881 https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40319-025-01616-2.
3. Chidi Oguamanam & Angela Yeboah-Appiah, “Kente Weaving Among Akan and Ewe Peoples of Ghana: A Gender-Based Insight into Embedded Intangible Cultural Heritage and Implications for the Implementation of the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage Convention” (2024) 31:2 International Journal of Cultural Property 249-277 doi:10.1017/S0940739124000213.
4. Chidi Oguamanam, “Transition to the Fourth Industrial Revolution: Africa’s Science, Technology and Innovation Framework and Indigenous Knowledge Systems” (2023) 15:1 African Journal of Legal Studies 1-37, https://doi.org/10.1163/17087384-bja10058.
5. Chidi Oguamanam, “A Critical Examination of African Continental Legal Framework for Indigenous Knowledge” (2023) Journal of African Law 1-21, https://doi.org/10.1017/S0021855323000049.
6. Chidi Oguamanam (with Laura Foster et al), “Smart Farming and Artificial Intelligence in East Africa: Addressing Indigeneity, Plant and Gender” (2023) 3 Smart Agricultural Technology 1-10, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.atech.2022.100132.