Jurisdictions:
Languages:
English
Biography
Ngozi Aderibigbe is a leading intellectual property, technology and entertainment lawyer with over 20 years’ experience advising businesses, creators, investors and institutions on the protection, commercialisation and strategic use of intellectual property.
She is Partner and Co-Founder of Gray & Silicon Legal Advisors, a multidisciplinary practice spanning intellectual property, data protection, finance and corporate law. Before founding Gray & Silicon, Ngozi spent 17 years at a leading Nigerian commercial law firm, rising to Partner and Head of its Intellectual Property practice.
Recognised for her versatility across traditional IP and emerging technologies, Ngozi advises major African and international corporations across the technology, telecommunications, media, entertainment and digital services sectors. She has particular expertise in IP transactions, including complex IP audits, commercialisation, licensing and other IP-driven commercial arrangements.
Ngozi has a significant creative and entertainment practice, acting as lead production counsel on numerous film and television productions, including projects commissioned or distributed by Netflix and Amazon Prime. She advises on film financing, chain-of-title, co-productions, rights clearance, talent and content acquisition agreements, and licensing and distribution.
Ngozi also works extensively in AI governance, data protection, and emerging technology regulations. She recently led the development of a research-driven Body of Knowledge on Generative AI in Nigeria and contributed to the development of assessment standards for Nigeria’s first digital GenAI governance assessment platform.
She is a member of INTA’s Technology Transformation Committee and ICANN’s Intellectual Property Constituency, and previously chaired the Intellectual Property Committee of the Nigerian Bar Association-Section on Business Law.
Year joined firm: 2025
She is Partner and Co-Founder of Gray & Silicon Legal Advisors, a multidisciplinary practice spanning intellectual property, data protection, finance and corporate law. Before founding Gray & Silicon, Ngozi spent 17 years at a leading Nigerian commercial law firm, rising to Partner and Head of its Intellectual Property practice.
Recognised for her versatility across traditional IP and emerging technologies, Ngozi advises major African and international corporations across the technology, telecommunications, media, entertainment and digital services sectors. She has particular expertise in IP transactions, including complex IP audits, commercialisation, licensing and other IP-driven commercial arrangements.
Ngozi has a significant creative and entertainment practice, acting as lead production counsel on numerous film and television productions, including projects commissioned or distributed by Netflix and Amazon Prime. She advises on film financing, chain-of-title, co-productions, rights clearance, talent and content acquisition agreements, and licensing and distribution.
Ngozi also works extensively in AI governance, data protection, and emerging technology regulations. She recently led the development of a research-driven Body of Knowledge on Generative AI in Nigeria and contributed to the development of assessment standards for Nigeria’s first digital GenAI governance assessment platform.
She is a member of INTA’s Technology Transformation Committee and ICANN’s Intellectual Property Constituency, and previously chaired the Intellectual Property Committee of the Nigerian Bar Association-Section on Business Law.
Year joined firm: 2025
Recent matter / case highlights
- The Challenge: Following successive global reorganisations of its intellectual property portfolio, a multinational industrial company faced a significant gap in the Nigerian chain of title for one of its principal global brands. An application to record an earlier assignment had remained unresolved for 15 years, while a subsequent restructuring had resulted in a further transfer of the trade mark.
Our Work: We took over prosecution of the long-pending recordal, conducted a comprehensive audit and search of the company’s Nigerian trade mark portfolio, identified affected registrations and applications, and developed a strategy to regularise the complete chain of title.
The Result: Within three months, we secured official recordal of the 15-year-old assignment and successfully recorded the subsequent transfer. The exercise also enabled the client to identify and consolidate all Nigerian trade marks associated with the brand. - Advising producers and investors on film finance transactions, including financing structures that leverage intellectual property and content rights as underlying assets.
- A not-for-profit organisation collaborating with the Federal Government of Nigeria on major climate-preservation initiatives required an IP and governance framework capable of protecting the research, innovations, creative outputs and partnerships underpinning its work.
Our Work: We mapped and protected the organisation’s IP portfolio, developed a comprehensive IP Policy, advised on trade mark selection and clearance, secured trade mark registrations, and developed agreements and governance instruments addressing ownership and use of intellectual property. These included partnership and service agreements, employment documentation, IP provisions and a Board Governance Charter.
The Result: The organisation now has an integrated framework for protecting, managing and commercialising the intellectual property generated through its projects, while reducing infringement and ownership risks as it enters new collaborations. - Ngozi led the IP strategy for a portfolio of innovative AI-enabled technologies developed to address distinctly African challenges.
The technologies included a pioneering microplanning solution for healthcare delivery in remote African communities; a crowdsourcing and task-management platform designed to build large local datasets using keyboards incorporating African-language characters; and an agentic AI solution for educators capable of generating localised lesson plans, learning materials, syllabi and other educational content.
Ngozi led the legal and IP analysis of the technologies, identifying the different forms of intellectual property embedded within the products and developing appropriate protection strategies. Her work included advising on patentability and patent strategy, trade-secret protection, trade mark protection and the broader commercialisation of the underlying IP. - Ngozi led the multidisciplinary team advising a film production company on financing arrangements for multiple film projects being developed as part of a broader content slate for an ambitious African SVOD platform.
Drawing on her experience across intellectual property, entertainment and commercial transactions, Ngozi advised on financing structures, repayment and recoupment mechanisms, investor participation, risk allocation, revenue recovery and security interests over film and intellectual property assets.
Her advice enabled the client to identify and avoid commercially unfavourable financing arrangements and negotiate structures that better protected the long-term profitability and exploitation potential of its productions.
Key practice areas
- Copyright & related rights
- Intellectual property (prosecution)
- IP transactions
Sector expertise
- Artificial intelligence
- Film
- ICT & software
- Media
- Music
Education / Alumni
- LLM, University of London (2020)
- LLM, Obafemi Awolowo University (2015)
- LLB, University of Nigeria (2005)
Association / Network Memberships
- International Trademarks Association
- Nigerian Bar Association
- Intellectual Property Committee, ICANN
- International Association of Privacy Professionals
Bar Admissions
- Nigerian Bar Association (2005)
Address:
Tel:+234 903 144 5869
Email:Contact this practitioner
Website:www.graysilicon.com
7th Floor, 39 Alfred Rewane Road
Ikoyi, Lagos
Nigeria