This week the African IP policies series stops in Burkina Faso. An IP policy is not listed on WIPOLex with the country's other IP texts. In an interview in April 2012, the Minister for Scientific Research and Innovation, stated that the country was developing an Innovation policy. This Leo could not find any further information on the development of the Innovation policy and it would be safe to say that it is still in development.For an interesting overview of Innovation policy issues for developing countries, this Leo recommends the OECD's Innovation Policy: A guide for Developing Countries, which is available to download in pdf, for free. It discusses the link between innovation and intellectual property and states (at p50):
"The key innovation priority for developing countries is to acquire and use
knowledge that already exists, which is less costly and less risky than creating
new knowledge. While some of this knowledge is protected by intellectual
property rights and therefore would have to be purchased, an enormous
amount is in the public domain. Therefore, policies that facilitate access to
global knowledge are critical."
An approach this Leo heartily endorses.
For a note on the Burkina Faso's official IP websites see Kingsley's post here.
To date this series has visited Algeria, Angola , Benin and Botswana and found that none of them have IP policies.
