Obafemi Agaba is a partner and head of the brand protection practice at Jackson, Etti & Edu, and leader in the intellectual property field of practice in Nigeria.
Obafemi obtained an LLB from the Lagos State University, Nigeria in 1998, and was called to the Nigeria Bar in 2000. He holds a postgraduate diploma in UK, EC & US copyright law from King's College London, and holds an LLM in intellectual property law from University College London.
In his role as head of the firm's brand protection practice, he has successfully represented several local and multinational clients in various trademark, copyright and patent cases. He is an expert in obtaining ex parte Anton Piller orders of search and seizure and executing the same on infringers, who are then constrained to seek amicable resolution. He advises on, designs and executes specialised enforcement/anti-counterfeiting campaigns to meet the individual needs of the firm's clients in various industry sectors. These include civil and criminal court actions, and regulatory enforcement/raid actions with customs, police, the Standards Organisation, the Consumer Protection Council and NAFDAC, among others, as well as market surveys and investigations and public enlightenment. One of his landmark anti-counterfeiting campaigns was a multi-pronged anti-counterfeiting campaign designed and executed for a global energy company, which led to the seizures of counterfeit goods worth about US$2 million, and the revocation of trademark certificates that had been obtained by the adverse party surreptitiously.
Obafemi is also a leading light in technology, media and entertainment practice. His expertise cuts across advising through the value-chain of origination, production, financing, marketing and distribution of creative works, as well as the formulation and execution of tailor-made strategies for the protection and enforcement of the resulting intellectual property rights.
Obafemi has attended and facilitated at several local and international conferences. He was guest lecturer at Henley Business School in Johannesburg, where he facilitated five lectures on legal and industry issues relating to the Nigerian entertainment industry as a preparatory step towards the planned entertainment's potential investments in the Nigerian entertainment sector; he has also served as legal expert on the Lagos state governor's committee for the reforms of the entertainment industry, where he authored the legal framework for the actualisation of the committee's recommendations. Other roles include: panellist on the entertainment session at African Economic Summit of the Schools of Law and Business of Columbia University, New York; facilitator, "Taking Copyright Forward in Africa: Finding the Competitive Advantage" and "Copyright in the Digital Age: Surmounting the Challenges" at the World Intellectual Property Organization Copyrights and Related Rights Seminar held in Freetown, Sierra Leone; panellist, "Law & Order: Strengthening Entertainment Legal Practice in Nigeria" at the Afrobeat Educational Road Show organised by the UK Trade and Investment (UKTI) Nigeria and Strictly Entertainment Music; and facilitator, "Protecting Intellectual Property Online", at the UKTI Nigerian Social Media Week.
