Dr Chijioke Okorie is a Lecturer at the University of Pretoria, where she specialises in Intellectual Property Law and Internet laws. She is a Senior Researcher at and member of the Centre for Intellectual Property Law (IP Centre) as well as Associate Editor of the South African Intellectual Property Law Journal.

Bar/Board Admission

Advocate and Solicitor of the Supreme Court of Nigeria (2006)

Academic background

Dr Okorie holds a law degree from Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka (Nigeria), an LLM in Internet law and policy from the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, and PhD from the University of Cape Town, South Africa (Thesis title: Open and freemium music business models in Africa: Copyright and competition consequences).      

Teaching

Dr Okorie teaches undergraduate and postgraduate Intellectual Property Law modules at the Law Faculty.

Research

Dr Okorie’s research interests and activities relate to intellectual property law, with a special focus on Africa as a continent and individual African countries.

Areas of activity include: copyright reform policy discourse across Africa; the role of Constitutional and apex courts in the constitutionalising of intellectual property rules; artificial intelligence/data science and the law (especially copyright and competition laws); intellectual property jurisprudence; internet laws generally; trade mark law; etc.

Dr Okorie is the author of a research monograph, Multi-sided music platforms and the law: Copyright, law and policy in Africa (Routledge: 2020).

Research Funding

Dr Okorie has secured funding for my research from various organisations including NRF SARChI Chair Postdoctoral Research Fellowship; EU Coimbra Group; Arcadia Group-funded Right to Research project; Volkswagen Stiftung (pre-proposal grant) Canadian Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Scholarship – Advanced Scholars (QES-AS) program; and CRDF Global in partnership with the James Martin Center for Non-proliferation Studies.

In 2022, she received a grant under the University of Pretoria’s Research Development Programme.

PhD/LLD Supervision

Dr Okorie welcomes PhD/LLD proposals in the fields of copyright, intellectual property jurisprudence, and internet and data science laws.

Professional Roles

• Associate Editor, South African Intellectual Property Law Journal (since 2022; previously Editorial Assistant, 2019-2021)
• Founder, Data Science Law Lab
• Contributor for Africa, Intellectual Property Forum
• ‘Africa Correspondent’ at award-winning, specialist blog, The IPKat (since 2019)
• Member, Africa Knowledge Network (IP Working Group), United Nations Office of the Special Adviser on Africa (UN-OSAA)

Publications

For a current list of Dr Okorie’s publications, please visit her ORCID profile.