Member Details
Jurisdictions
Nigeria
Exclusive Member
Intellectual Property
Biography
Mr. Afamefuna Nwokedi has over 30 years of practice experience especially in the areas of intellectual property and commercial law litigation. His practice includes amongst, IP prosecution, anti-counterfeiting actions under both civil and criminal laws, border measures, infringement, passing-off, as well as other forms of IP and commercial law litigations before the trial and appellate courts in Nigeria.
Mr. Nwokedi has been involved in several IP initiatives, building processes and case law developments in Nigeria; including creating IP Clubs in Nigerian universities, setting up the Stillwaters Law Lecture Series and being the lead counsel for the Plaintiff in the IP locus classicus case of Beecham Products vs. General Nutrition. He authored the intellectual property section of the Civil Procedure Rules of the Federal High Court Rules 2009. He was a member of the Federal Government Committee for the establishment of intellectual Property Commission in Nigeria, a member of the Nigerian delegation to OHADA (African Association for the Harmonization and Development of Commercial Law) with specific representation on IP. He has served in the Anti-counterfeiting Committees of the Washington DC based organization INTA, and the prestigious New York based IPO and has consulted for the Commercial Law Development Programme (CLDP) of the United States Department of Commerce.
Mr. Nwokedi has authored and presented several publications and papers on intellectual property law.
He is the Editor-in-Chief of the “Nigeria Industrial Property Opposition Reports”; co-publisher of the London based IP magazine, “The Global IP Matrix”; a content writer of the Legal Chapter for Forbes Africa publication, and legal analysts for “The Report-Nigeria” a publication by the Oxford Business Group. He is the producer of the radio programs “Idea Police” in Nigeria.
True to expectation, Mr. Nwokedi’s nomination in 2000 by the UK based publication “Managing Intellectual Property” as the “’Star of the Future” in the world IP space has been vindicated through his numerous international awards and conferments. Mr. Nwokedi sits on the board of several companies and is a member of various local and international associations including, NBA, AEA, MARQUES, PTMG, INTA, AIPPI, BMM, IBA, IPLAN and ILN.
Aside from being the Principal Counsel and Group Head of Stillwaters Law Firm, he is the current Chairman of the IP Committee of the Nigerian Bar Association-Section on Business Law.
Firm Description
Stillwaters is a law firm based in Nigeria. The firm was established in 2001 and specialises in corporate and commercial law, intellectual property (IP) law, tax advisory services, Media-Entertainment-Technology and Sports (METS), and Litigation/Dispute Resolution.
As a firm, it is our belief that many aspects of today’s legal landscape require a keen understanding as well as knowledge of the law; accordingly, we offer solutions to the often complex arrays of regulations and requirements that confront the business client in Nigeria thereby creating conducive legal environments for our clients to achieve their goals.
Professionalism, flexibility and innovation are the hallmark of our practice. We value professional excellence, outstanding result and realize they both require creativity and hard work. With over 125 years of combined partnership practice experience, we strive to gain every legal advantage for our clients while upholding the principles behind our guiding goal of PEOPLE, INTEGRITY and SERVICE as a driving force steering our entire practice.
From corporate commercial contracts, media rights mergers, sport licensing, corporate income tax, copyright issues, due diligence to general trademark/patent administration, infringement, passing-off,anti-counterfeiting, piracy technology transfer, joint venture, dispute resolution and enforcement, practice representative clients include over 600 foreign multinationals, quoted companies, financial institutions, industries, small and medium-size businesses and private entrepreneurs.
Our IP department operates from the commericalk cities of Lagos and Abuja in Nigeria, with associate offices in Cameroon (for OAPI matters) and Angola; and our dispute resolution department has extensive practice before the trial and appellate courts in Nigeria.
