An ardent and long-standing reader has sent Afro-IP this piece which somewhat chimes with Caroline's post on South Africa's long-awaited Protection, Promotion, Development and Management of Indigenous Knowledge Systems Bill (2014). Here is what our friend says:
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There has been a lot of Africa-focused
activity at WIPO this month; and with the Committee on Development and
Intellectual Property (CDIP) meeting coming up in a few weeks, that
activity isn't going to slow down any time soon.
Over the past few weeks, WIPO jointly
hosted two separate programs on Africa and IP. Program no.1, involving the
Japan Patent Office, ARIPO and the Government of Uganda, was titled “Strategic
Use of the Intellectual Property (IP) System for Economic, Cultural, Social and
Technological Development”. The program,
which was held in Kampala, featured speakers from all of the host organizations
as well as experts from Kenya. The topics
covered the following: Creative Industries
for Economic Growth and Development (copyright);
Use of Technical and Scientific Information for Technology Capacity Building (one of many focused on patents); and
Significance of Trademarks, Industrial Designs, Utility Models and Geographical
Indications for Commerce and Development (everything
else). Full agenda is available here.
Program no.2 - which was held in Geneva, thanks
to the generosity of Australian Aid
- was titled “Seminar on
Intellectual Property and Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge (TK) and
Traditional Cultural Expressions (TCEs): Regional, National and Local
Experiences”. The program featured speakers from Peru, Jamaica, Romania,
Finland, India and Kenya sharing their experiences with protecting TK and
TCEs. Session topics also covered IP and
development, the interplay of TK and TCEs with the concept of the public
domain, and experiences on introducing IP legislation. Full agenda is available here (link no longer available).
It makes sense to see Australia in program no.2 since its Aboriginal
culture laws (also here + New Zealand) are often held up as examples in the fields of TK and TCEs. Special mention goes to an IP expert in
great demand Ms.
Marisela Ouma (Kenya Copyright Board), who was a presenter at both of these
programs.
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If you were able to attend
either of these programs and would like to report on them in more depth, please
do let us know or post your comments below. Thanks.
