The Chair in Intellectual Property, Innovation and Development is dedicated to aligning intellectual property (IP) law with public interest and national development imperatives. This work is especially urgent in African contexts, where rigid IP frameworks can stifle innovation and limit access to essential medicines, technologies and knowledge. The Chair’s work includes considerations of sustainable development, inclusion and human rights, grounding its scholarship in these concerns. Based in the Department of Commercial Law, the Chair is a key node in the Open African Innovation Research (Open AIR) network, a continent-wide collaboration developing inclusive, sustainable knowledge governance for Africa and beyond.

The Chair’s research spans copyright and patent law in light of constitutional protections for fundamental and socio-economic rights, the protection of indigenous knowledge, and African regional integration efforts. The theoretical grounding in sustainable development, inclusion and human-rights perspectives has enriched a discipline that has historically tended to overlook these aspects. Through Open AIR and other research partnerships the Chair investigates how regulatory systems can be reshaped to better support innovation and equitable access in areas such as healthcare, data governance, food security and green technologies across Africa. This work aligns closely with South Africa’s National Development Plan 2030, addressing national developmental priorities, while building IP capacity across the continent through a team of researchers and postdoctoral fellows producing scholarship of international standing. The Chair’s work has significant policy impact at national, regional and global levels through the provision of technical expertise and policy advice to parliament, regional economic communities, the African Union and intergovernmental organisations like the World Intellectual Property Organization and the World Trade Organization.