Afamefuna Francis Nwokedi

Afamefuna Francis Nwokedi has over 27 years of practice experience especially in the area of intellectual property law litigation. He is the Principal Counsel and Group Head of Stillwaters Law Firm, which operates from Nigeria, Angola and OAPI.

Mr Nwokedi has been involved in several intellectual property (IP) law initiatives and building processes in Nigeria, including being a member of the Federal Government Committee for the establishment of Intellectual Property Commission, and a member of the Nigerian delegation to OHADA (African Association for the Harmonisation and Development of Commercial Law) with particular representation on IP issues. He is a director and motivator of the “Idea Police” program, and has worked closely with the Commercial Law Development Programme (CLDP) of the United States Department of Commerce towards the harmonisation of Nigeria’s IP laws to meet up with international best practices. Mr Nwokedi is the chairman many companies and a few associations, including the IP Committee of the Section on Business Law of the Nigerian Bar Association.

Mr Nwokedi is the Editor-in-Chief of the “Nigerian Intellectual Property Opposition (NIPO) Reports”, and has authored and presented several papers on intellectual property law in Nigeria.

Member: NBA, IPLAN, IBA, INTA, AEA, APAA, IPO, BMM, MARQUES, PTMG, IPO and AAAIP.

Stillwaters

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 realise 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 commercial 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.

Searches to registration, renewals, assignments, mergers, transmissions, oppositions, agency, distributorship, franchising, piracy, passing-off, infringement, licensing, technology transfer, patenting, annuities, designs, IP due diligence, boarder enforcement measures, anti-counterfeiting, anti-piracy, arbitration and litigation.