Professor Adebambo Adewopo SAN is a leading intellectual property (IP) law scholar with almost three decade’s academic, private and public sector experience since his call to bar in 1989.
Born on January 3, 1966 in Ile-Ife, Osun Sate, he obtained a Bachelors of Laws, LL. B (Honours) from the University of Maiduguri and a Masters of Law, LL. M from both the University of Lagos and Franklin Pierce Intellectual Property Center, University of New Hampshire, USA. He attended the ‘Strategic Management of Enforcement Agencies Program’, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, USA; ‘Policy Strategy and Leadership Course’ at the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies Kuru-Jos, Nigeria and ‘Influence and Negotiation Strategies Program’ at the Graduate School of Business, Stanford University, USA.
Professor Adewopo became a Professor of Intellectual Property Law in 2010 and was conferred with the rank of a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) in 2017.
He started his career at F. A Ajayi SAN & Co and F. A Osho SAN & Co, Legal Practitioners. He worked as an Assistant Manager with Hogg Robinson Nigeria and in 1991, became a counsel in Laoye & Adewopo, Legal Consultants. He pioneered teaching and research in IP and IT Law at the Faculty of Law, Lagos State University (LASU and was a Tutor, at the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Academy (Distance Learning); Professor Adewopo was a Visiting Associate Professor at the Faculty of Law, Olabisi Onabanjo University and is presently a Professor of Intellectual Property Law at the Nigerian Institute of Advanced Legal Studies (NIALS).
In 2004, Professor Adewopo was appointed the Director General of the Nigerian Copyright Commission (NCC) and held the position until 2010. In his capacity as the DG, he headed several delegations of the Government of Nigeria to the meetings of the Standing Committee on Copyright & Related Rights (SCCR) & member as well as several delegations of the Government of Nigeria to the Diplomatic Conference, WIPO, Geneva amongst others.
He is a Fellow of Salzburg Seminar; Max Planck Institute for Competition and Intellectual Property, Germany and Centre for Studies in Intellectual Property and Information Technology Law, University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom. He is a Member of the International Bar Association, Lawyers Association, Working Group on Intellectual Property Teaching in Law Faculties in Nigeria, Executive Committee, International Association for Teaching & Research in Intellectual Property (ATRIP). Member, Advisory Board, The Journal of the Centre for Research in Intellectual Property and Technologies (SCRIPT-ed), University of Edinburgh, Scotland, UK. Founding Editor, NIALS Journal of Intellectual Property and Member, Editorial Advisory Board, Osun State University Law Journal.
Professor Adewopo’s research and scholarship focuses on IP, Human Development and global knowledge governance, and the role and reform of IP in developing countries. He has written over 100 published works including articles in peer review journals, book contributions and authored books on copyright and IP law. He has delivered over 100 conference papers. ‘Professor Adewopo was a scholar before he was anything else. He is a visionary who believes in the power of ideas and of his own convictions. He is among the very few who genuinely and passionately picked up the mustard seed of IP law and has since curated it to the heightened degree of awareness in Nigeria and globally’ says Professor Chidi Oguamanam of the University of Ottawa.
On December 6, 2019 Professor Adebambo Adewopo was nominated by the Federal Government as the Nigerian Candidate for the post of Director General of the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO).
Professor Adewopo SAN is married with children and enjoys Jogging, football, table-tennis.
Culled: Lalegal Consultants;
