The fact that we don’t have millionaire or billionaire IT innovators and
app developers in Kenya or even across Africa is confirmation of our
weak intellectual property (IP) laws.
Europe, US, China and South Korea mint billions of dollars as a
result of patents yet in Kenya, our app developers and IT nerds languish
in abject dream of poverty because of inability to patent their
innovations thus being taken advantage of by companies or organizations
that purport to support innovation.It is a good thing to support innovation and set up labs and incubation centres to spur creativity. The intentions of those behind the incubation centers are brilliant and excellent. When an aspiring app developer walks into an incubation centre or a computer lab, s/he feels like the next Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg or Jack Dorsey but reality soon sets in, changing the whole dream.
Setting up an ecosystem for app developers and giving them tools to become more aggressive in their innovation is very encouraging. But as corporates give them these tools to enrich themselves through brain drain, the government should be protective of its brilliant citizens when they are coming up with multi-billion solutions that will not only help themselves but the entire economy.
In 2013, Facebook’s revenue was US $ 7.87 billion while Twitter recorded US $ 664 million. These mindboggling figures that would sufficiently run our Kenyan economy that is still on the runway waiting for takeoff.
According to Wikipedia, in 2013, the US’ Patent & Trademark Office stated that the worth of intellectual property to country’s economy is more than US $ 5 trillion and creates employment for an estimated 18 million American people. The value of IP is considered similarly high in other developed nations, such as those in EU. In UK, IP has become a recognized asset class for use in pension-led funding and other types of business finance. However, in 2013, the UK Intellectual Property Office stated: “There are millions of intangible business assets whose value is either not being leveraged at all or only being leveraged inadvertently”.
Talking about patents, Kenya has shamelessly lost some patents to foreign counties and can never claim them because of very weak laws. In 2007, some activists were aggravated and went up in arms to complain after losing the Kiondo basket trademark to Japan and even the popular Kikoi fabric design was at risk of being patented by a British company. The Kikoi patent actually went away.
I would like to believe that Kenya’s Industrial Research and Development Institute (KIRDI) has failed miserably in protecting Kenya’s economic projects that identifies with its innovation. And this is the same thing that is happening in the ICT industry when young graduates walk home with pocket change after sweating it out in labs to come up with apps.
There are corporates - especially multinationals - that come and set up labs or incubation centres in the name of empowering the youths to become innovative yet when they find something good out of them, it becomes a reap off.
Probably the government should become more involved, especially the country’s ministry of ICT, to understand the models behind some of this incubation centres and how our students can benefit more and whether the projects can be scaled up to employ more people for the relationship to become more symbiotic between the innovator and the funder.
Ideas are worth billions of shillings and unless the government takes the issues of copyrights, patents and trademarks seriously, our own innovators will die poor and so is the economy.
I believe that the World Intellectual Property Rights body – WIPO - recognizes most of the global patents, trademarks and copyrights that have followed proper legal procedures as well as international standards. This calls for the government - through KIRDI and Kenya Industrial Property Institute (KIPI) with the respective ministries – to focus on fortifying the laws on copyrights, patents and trademarks to enable the young innovative minds create wealth and empower the economy.
Expansion of the Intellectual Property Right laws is therefore critical to ensure the creators of innovations enjoy full benefits for their ideas.
In Europe, America and according to Wikipedia, the increase in terms of protection is particularly seen in relation to copyright, which has recently been the subject of serial extensions. With no need for registration or copyright notices, this is thought to have led to an increase in orphan works (copyrighted works for which the copyright owner cannot be contacted), a problem that has been noticed and addressed by governmental bodies around the world.
Also with respect to copyright, the American film industry helped to change the social construct of intellectual property via its trade organization, the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA). In amicus briefs in important cases, in lobbying before Congress, and in its statements to the public, the MPAA has advocated strong protection of intellectual-property rights.
In framing its presentations, the association has argued that people are entitled to the property that is produced by their labor. Additionally, Congress's awareness of the position of the US as the world's largest producer of films has made it convenient to expand the conception of IP. These doctrinal reforms have further strengthened the industry, lending the MPAA even more power and authority.
Such expansions of laws by our parliament will end the suits we see in our courtrooms regarding copyright infringement. Let us protect and appreciate the innovations that give us identify in the global village.http://www.cio.co.ke/blog/weak-ip-laws-hurting-aspiring-it-billionaires
