Dalindyebo Shabalala

Dalindyebo Shabalala is an Associate Professor at the University of Dayton Law School. His primary teaching responsibilities are in Contracts, as well as Intellectual Property and Business Law.

Prof. Shabalala’s research focuses on the interaction of intellectual property law, especially patent law, with the rights of indigenous peoples and climate change law. He conducts research on the rights of indigenous peoples and traditional communities to their traditional knowledge and culture and the role of international intellectual property treaties in enabling or preventing the realization of those rights.

Prof. Shabalala also conducts research on the interaction of patent law with climate change, focusing on the role of technology licensing and transfer in enabling the technology goals of the climate change convention (UNFCCC). His current research in this area is a long-term collaboration with researchers in India, Brazil, China and South Africa to identify technology transfer and licensing measures that these countries have taken that may or may not be in compliance with their obligations under the TRIPS Agreement. He is a member of the Climate Action Network Technology Working Group and serves as the Environmental NGO representative to the UNFCCC Technology Executive Committee’s Task Force on Innovation, Research, Development and Demonstration. He continues to provide advice on patent law and technology licensing to developing countries and civil society organizations in climate change negotiations. Prof. Shabalala participates in the Program on Law and Technology (PILT) at the law school

Prof. Shabalala has published in several edited volumes, and has published a book “Climate Change, Technology Transfer and Intellectual Property – Options for Action at the UNFCCC”, Maastricht University (2014) available in print from Amazon and electronically. His reflections on his research and policy work can be found on his blog.

He has a partial appointment as Assistant Professor of International Economic Law (Intellectual property) at Maastricht University in the Netherlands. He teaches European and Comparative Intellectual Property at the Masters level and is a fellow in the Institute for Globalisation and International Regulation (IGIR) (www.igir.org). Previously, Prof. Shabalala was Visiting Assistant Professor at Case Western Reserve University School of Law teaching Business Associations and International Intellectual Property.

Prof. Shabalala was Managing Attorney of the Center for International Environmental Law’s Geneva office, and Director of CIEL's Intellectual Property and Sustainable Development Project. He focused on issues at the intersection of intellectual property and climate change, human health, biodiversity and food security, as well as addressing systemic reform of the international intellectual property system. He is now a member of CIEL’s Board of Trustees.