Youth urged to protect intellectual property
Youth entrepreneurs have been urged to use Intellectual Property System to build viable and sustainable businesses.
Speaking at the World Intellectual Property Day in Francistown this week, Minister of Trade and Industry, Mmusi Kgafela said the event, which was held under the theme, ‘ IP and Youth: Innovating for a better future’ calls for young people to showcase how they can use tools of the intellectual property system, patents, trademarks, copyrights, and indus t r ial designs amongst other IP rights, to build viable, sustainable businesses.
According to Kgafela, the World IP Day Commemoration comes at a time when Parliament has just approved the Botswana Intellectual Property Policy ( BIPP).
The main objective of the Policy is to ensure that the entire IP governance framework contributes towards the harnessing of the country’s ideas, innovations and talent for economic transformation, as well as inclusive and sustainable economic growth and development.
“For young business people, the policy promises inclusivity. All initiatives undertaken by Government and state- owned enterprises to improve the intellectual property landscape will take into cognisance the entrepreneurial activities of the youth.
In addition, government will establish model IP business clusters aimed at upgrading businesses that generate patents, utility models and other intellectual property rights. These clusters will showcase how Botswana’s IP can be commercialized, and will be the country’s benchmark for production of internationally competitive products,” Kgafela said.
He added that the creative industries play a significant role in IP creation in Botswana.
Kgafela shared some of the initiatives that the government has in place to support and encourage the development of a more vibrant local creative sector. His Ministry, in collaboration with the Ministry of Youth, Gender, Sports and Culture, is currently working on concluding the National Strategy for the Creative Industries.
This is a five- year strategy that will see the industry coordinated from one central body, the National Arts Council. The strategy will also facilitate for the creative industries to have improved access to funding, as well as increased capacity building initiatives.
Kgafela further noted that these initiatives are intended to improve the industry’s access to market and its international competitiveness. “It is my express wish that young creatives will fully exploit them so that in the near future, we will start to see infrastructure, employment and wealth creation booming as a result of the full utilisation of the talent and creativity that is plentiful in Botswana.”
Kgafela further said the robust intellectual property system is designed to reward young entrepreneurs for their original and creative ideas, noting that in order for the IP system to work for the country, as well as for individual businesses, it is up to every one of them to invest in research and development of new products and services.
He said Government has put in place institutions that can take one from idea conception, to research, technology transfer and product development, IP protect ion and commercialisation as the IP system will ensure that one will be protected so that one can earn a return from investing in and creating competitive, quality products.
Register General at Companies and Intellectual Property Authority ( CIPA), Conductor Masena said commemorating World Intellectual Property Day annually gives CIPA an opportunity to create awareness on intellectual property, as well as to showcase how the use of the intellectual property system can be instrumental in building sustainable businesses, creating much needed jobs, as well as growing and diversifying the economy.
Masena shared that the intellectual property system gives those who produce original products legal protection for a limited time so that they can exclusively sell their products and benefit from their own creativity.
IP offers businesses a monopoly over their products and services so that they can earn a return on investment in new products.