The Jupiter Hall of Four Points by
Sheraton in Victoria Island, Lagos was bursting at its seams this Monday,
October 30, 2017 as Nigeria’s Foreign Affairs Minister, Mr. Geoffrey Onyeama on
Day 2 of the much talked about COSON Week, engaged the nation’s intelligentsia,
experts on intellectual property and drivers of the Nigerian creative industry
at the 2017 COSON Lecture. Present were several eminent Intellectual Property
lawyers, teachers and students of law and serious practitioners in the Nigerian
creative industry. Among those present were the Lagos State Commissioner for
Information & Strategy, Mr. Steve Ayorinde; immediate past president of the
Intellectual Property Law Association of Nigeria, Prof. Bankole Sodipo; immediate
past Director-General of the Nigerian Copyright Commission, Prof. Adebambo Adewopo
SAN; Dean Faculty of Law, University of Lagos; Ms. Iyabode Oshodi, representing the
Attorney-General of Lagos State; human rights activist and Commissioner in
NDDC, Mr. Ogaga Ifowodo; eminent IP lawyer, Mr. Rockson Igelige, etc
Mr. Onyeama, who before being
appointed Minister was Deputy Director-General of the World Intellectual
Property Organization (WIPO), the Geneva based agency of the United Nations,
spoke on “Intellectual Property Rights in the New Global Knowledge Economy” a
subject with which he is clearly at home. He poured encomium on the COSON
Chairman, Chief Tony Okoroji for his forcefulness and consistency in promoting
the intellectual property cause in Nigeria and across the continent.
The minister did a thorough
examination of the intellectual property landscape across the world, the trade
related aspects of intellectual property (TRIPS) and the role of IP in the
World Trade Organization (WTO). He was clear that without a firm appreciation
of the role of intellectual property in economic development, the Nigerian
economy will not reach its optimum.