08 Jul 2018

Since joining the African Regional Intellectual Property Organisation (ARIPO) Harare Protocol, Botswana has become a haven for at least 6 328 patents, 879 industrial designs and 63 utility models worldwide.

Speaking at a two-day Intellectual Property (IP) roving seminar for academic and research institutions which ended on July 6, ARIPO director general, Professor Fernando Dos Santos said Botswana had also joined the Banjul Protocol for the protection of marks and as a result 2 002 were protected in the country with the numbers rising exponentially every year.

He applauded government’s efforts to improve the IP system in Botswana, especially through establishing CIPA, with a focused mandate on the registration of businesses and administration of IP rights.

Mr Santos noted that ARIPO had partnered with academic and research institutions in its member states to conduct seminars on IP since last year including Sierra Leone, Zambia, Swaziland and Rwanda.

“This year saw ARIPO stepping up and extending the crusade to Zimbabwe, Liberia, Namibia and now Botswana,” he said.

He said ARIPO was excited to be in Botswana where all indications point to the fact that IP was a vibrant topic.

Mr Santos said ARIPO knew the efforts of organisations such as Botswana Innovation Hub, Botswana Institute of Technology, Research and Innovation, Botswana Vaccine Institute and Department of Agricultural Research and Human Resource Development Council.

He said foreign universities were already using the ARIPO route to protect their endeavours in the region.

“For example, the University of California filed 20 patents with ARIPO, three South African universities also filed applications with ARIPO, namely University of Witwatersrand (19), University of Stellenbosch (14) and University of Pretoria (12),” he said.

In Botswana, he said Botswana Institute of Technology and Innovation filed one patent, one industrial design, one trademark while Botswana Technology Centre had also filed one patent.

“This is the reason behind the organisation of this seminar. We are aware that there is a lot of creativity and innovation going on in our academic and research institutions,” he said adding that benefits of creativity, innovation and inventiveness might not be fully realised or adequately rewarded due to lack of awareness on the role IP protection played in rewarding and promoting creativity and innovation.

He said Africa was faced with many challenges impacting negatively on creativity and innovation such as lack of IP expertise, relevant IP policies and legal frameworks that could incentivise researchers and inventors.

“I am pleased to say that ARIPO and the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) worked together to develop Institutional Intellectual Property Policy and Strategy guidelines which will soon be piloted in some institutions,” he said.

To that end, he said, ARIPO and WIPO launched a call for expressions of interest by universities and research institutions to benefit from the project and the response had been overwhelming with 40 requests from universities located in 15 African countries.

He said as a way of addressing the critical need of IP experts on the continent, ARIPO partnered with WIPO and Africa University in Mutare in 2008 to offer Master’s Degree in IP.

“To date, the programme has graduated 296 students from 26 countries across Africa out of which 15 are from Botswana. ENDS