29 May 2023

Botswana needs to establish an effective Geographical Indications (GIs) system to protect the uniqueness of local products for economic benefit.

This was said recently by Companies and Intellectual Property Authority (CIPA) registrar general, Mr Conductor Masena during a workshop organised by CIPA on the importance of GIs as a tool to promote national products.

“It is through the utilisation of the intellectual property system that Botswana products can be protected at the same time enhancing their visibility and competitiveness the in local and international markets,” he said.

Mr Masena said the country stood to benefit from GIs if taken advantage of, as it would be used to identify a product and its quality, reputation or other characteristics and how it relates to its geographical indication. 

“Elements that contributes to the unique attributes of such products include climate and soil quality,” he said.

Explaining the objective of the workshop, CIPA registrar general explained that the company found it necessary to open dialogue and create awareness on GIs and how they could contribute to the country’s economic development. 

He said the dialogue would give direction on how to establish an effective value chain in the GIs ecosystem and potential GIs in Botswana.

He said the day’s workshop, geared towards kick-starting promotion of a culture where products that were uniquely Botswana could be incubated, protected as GI and ultimately be commercialised.

He, therefore, noted that the event would help identify Botswana’s starting point as far as GIs were concerned. 

However, he expressed concern that despite having been enacted in commerce and administering the Industrial Property Act from 2010, only one GI, the Scottish Whisk, was registered.

“I don’t know the label, but this is the only GI in our database. 

There is no single GI registered for Botswana. 

This contradicts the situation on the ground where we have products that are unique to Botswana such as beef, Chobe bream and sengaparile and many others. 

Therefore, I hope this workshop and further activities will unlock the potential of Botswana’s GIs,” added Mr Masena.

Mr Masena said in November last year, Parliament adopted Botswana Intellectual Property (IP) Policy whose objective was to promote IP towards a knowledge-based economy and to diversify the economy. 

One of the guiding principles of the policy, he said, was geographical origins, which called for the protection of local products.

Further, he said in the key five priority economic sectors identified in the policy, the use of GI as a tool for building competitive products was strongly encouraged.

 For that reason, he said the workshop should trigger action that would focus on GI towards business development as espoused in the country’s IP Policy.

Giving an overview of the benefits, limitations and strengths that Botswana had in establishing an effective GIs system, African Regional Intellectual Property Organisation (ARIPO) patent examiner, Ms Odirileng Keipopele said GIs, as an intellectual property right, allowed authorised use of the product in that region without the use of the third party or the consent.

Ms Keipopele also said Geographical Indications helped prevent someone from making or using any other technique besides the set quality standards for that product as they gave the product an identity, quality and reputation of where it originated from by protecting its geographical location or origin.

From an economic point of view, she said the GIs contributed towards sustainable rural development and food security, adding that agricultural products could be protected with the usage of the GIs, included sengaparile, morama bean, mophane worm and mahupu.

“The economy and the development can come from the commercialisation of such products. 

And if they are protected through the use of a GI they will have a better reputation and it will enhance the economic growth, because any other person cannot come and just sell the product without using the proper GI of that area. 

This will help safeguard the products against unnecessary competition and products will gain mileage due to expansion of business or market,” she explained.

Through promoting GIs, she said this would also help foster new markets and sustainable development, thereby enhancing economic opportunities and empowering local communities within which the products originated. Ends