Introduction to Intellectual Property:

Concepts and Challenges facing

Developing Countries

Emmanuel Sackey
Chief Examiner
WHAT DO THESE HAVE IN COMMON ?

HUMAN IDEAS AND INGENUITY

 The Seven (7) reasons for the
protection of IP
1. Intangible assets have become more
valuable than tangible assets

 Europe - Intangible assets account for

40 to 60 per cent of hidden value of
wealth

 US - Three quarters of the value of

publicly traded companies are
intangible assets
Wealth creation - increasing value of Intangible
Assets

Key factors

Competitive pressure

R&D cutbacks drive

efficiency
Push for innovation

Globalisation of
markets
Commitments to
maximise
shareholder value
Knowledge Capital Knowledge

Capital

Labour Labour

Pre -industrial era Industrial era

Capital

The « knowledge
economy »
Knowledge
Labour
 IP is Central to Economic Growth &
Competition
US investment in intangible assets (>$1T/year)
equivalent to investment in tangibles “Intellectual property is the
14
backbone of America's economy”
% of GDP

U.S. Commerce Secretary

12 Carlos Gutierrez
Tangibles
10 Japan intends to “bring about a
nation founded on intellectual
property”
8 Japanese Prime Minister
Junichiro Koizumi
Intangibles
6
“The competition of the future
world is a competition for
4 Intellectual Property Rights”
Chinese Premier
Wen Jiabao
2
~80%
~80% of
of the
the value
value ofof modern
modern companies
companies
0
comes
comes fromfrom intangible
intangible assets
assets
1954 1964 1974 1984 1994 2004
Sources: US Federal Reserve – Nakamura, Ned Davis Research
6
2. If you don’t, someone will ( the global village phenomenon) Ex,
of Kodak

3. Control and ownership legitimacy – Exclusive rights, investor

confidence and access to banks

4. Greater Profits – generic vs. intangible value

5. Access global market

6. Stronger Exit Opportunities – In most cases, 80% of transferable

assets are IP. If not IPP, only 20% is received

7. Law of attraction and respect – IP owners attract talent, strategic

alliances, customers. Largest companies and those in our
business sectors value and respect IP
 Knowledge is …..
• Replicable

• Scalable

• Difficult to be held as a secret

• Perishable or can be rendered obsolete

• World Leadership determined by
creating and harnessing knowledge
• Nation’s ability to convert
knowledge into wealth is
determinant factor for leadership
• 21st century- “century of knowledge
based economy”
• Past centuries – raw commodities
determined national development
 Intellectual Property – what it is.
MIND
EVERYTHING WE THINK OF/DREAM OF TO DO
(Creations)
UNDER THE PROVIDED IT IS
SUN NEW, USEFUL
AND
BENEFICIAL
INVENTIONS
LA SH Driven by:
S F INNOVATIONS
W New knowledge
NE
Desire to solve problems
BRANDS
Investigation (Research)
Tapping ideas from
customers
IDEAS DESIGNS
DON’T BE A
CONSUMER Imagination EXPRESSIONS
ALL YOUR
LIFE
Exposure
Experience SOFTWARE APP.
Inspiration
BUSINESS
Curiosity
METHODS
 Branches of IPRs
Copyright Industrial property
• Artistic works • Trademarks
• Literary works • Geographical indications
[computer software and data • Industrial designs
bases] • Patents
Related • Plant varieties protection
(neighbouring) rights • Topographies of int. circ.
• Performers • Undisclosed information
• Phonogram producers (e.g. trade secrets; test data)
[other types not in TRIPS: e.g.
• Broadcasters sui generis data bases not
included; utility models, trade
names?]
 COPYRIGHT
A set of legal rights that provides the creator
of a work of art, literature, music
or any other work that conveys information or
right to control how the
ideas, the
work is used

Copyright law:
• protects the expression of an idea.
Not the idea itself
• provides economic incentive to the
creator ensuring that he will be
reimbursed for his intellectual work
 COPYRIGHT
Copyright is a bundle of rights which
allows the owner exclusive rights to:
Make an
Communicate
adaptatio
work
n
Rent
Perform articles
in public containing
© e.g. CDs

Prevent
importatio
Publish n of
infringing
works

Assign
Copy or Copyrig (sell) or
reproduce licence
work ht these
rights
 COPYRIGHT
Copyright is automatic upon
creation.

However, it’s a good idea to:

• Have the original work witnessed
and dated
• Register the copyright (where
possible)
• Use proper marking for the
copyright ©
• Document details of any
 PATENTS
New inventions or any new and
useful improvement of an existing
invention
• Novel: must be new, first in the world - no
one can have already done or used it
before

• Useful: functional and operative

• Inventive: must show ingenuity and must

not be obvious to someone of average skill
in the field of invention
What can be PATENTS
patented?
• A Product: a door lock
• A Composition: a
chemical composition in
lubricants for door locks
• An Apparatus: a machine

for making door locks

• A Process: a method for
making door locks
… or an improvement on
any of these (90% of
patents are improvements
of existing patents)
 PATENTS

Paper clip was

patented by
Norwegian, Johan Post-it ® note was
Vaaler in Germany, patented by Art Fry
1899 from 3M
 1946 1964

1981
COMPUTERS
OVER
THE
YEARS 2014
1999
 1950s

1930s

1970s

1990s
2014
 That Plastic Thing Inside Your Pizza
Box Was Invented 30 Years Ago

If you’re one of the seven billion

humans on this planet who enjoys
getting pizza delivered to your door,
you have a piece of plastic to thank. A
piece of plastic? Yes, that circular
plastic thing that goes in the middle of
a pie to prevent the pizza from sticking
to the top of the pizza box. It’s called a
pizza saver. And it was invented 30
years ago on February 10, 1983, when
Carmela Vitale got her patent issued
for that piece of plastic on February
Vitale expressed the need for her pizza saver in the
12, 1885.
patent application saying that, “there is a tendency
of the covers to sag or to be easily depressed at
their centre portions so that they may damage or
mark the pies or cakes during storage or delivery”
and that it was necessary to create “a lightweight
and inexpensive device” that was made from “one
of the plastics which is heat resistant” (she
suggested thermo set plastic).
 Utility Model Protection
‘Utility Model means any form, configuration or disposition of
elements of some appliance, working tools and implements as articles
of everyday use, electrical and electronic circuitry, instrument,
handicraft, mechanism or other object or any part thereof in so far as
they are capable of contributing some benefit or new effect or saving
in time, energy and labour or allowing a better or different
functioning, use, processing or manufacture of the subject matter or
that gives utility advantages, environmental benefit, and includes
micro-organism or other self-replicable material, products of genetic
resources, herbal as well as nutritional formulations which give new
effects’.
• Novelty
• Inventive Step (Local)
• Industrial Applicability
• Simple and less costly
 Patent and Utility Model Specifications and
Criteria
Patents Utility Models
Specifications Specifications
• Bibliographic data • Same as patents
• Title
• Abstract Criteria
• Description • Novelty
• Claims • Inventive step (low or
• Drawings/sequence absent)
listing • Industrial applicability
• Criteria
• Novelty, inventive step,
industrial applicability
• Unity of invention etc
 Does a name really matter?
• In 1969 while speaking at a small scientific conference, Sir
Roger Penrose, a Cambridge physicist announced his
discovery of what he called a "gravitationally totally collapsed
object." The world yawned.
• Months later, he changed his description to a "Black Hole"
and the news of his discovery raced around the world. Today,
the term Black Hole is a part of the world's working
vocabulary.
• We cannot understand, or maybe we do not care about a
collapsed object. But a Black Hole is something very
different. It is provocative, intriguing, exciting and conceptual.
Most important, it is believable. (quoted from Lexicon Branding, Inc.)
 TRADEMARKS
A word (or words), a design, or a
combination
of these used to distinguish the
goods and services of one person
or organization from those of
others in the marketplace
Protection of trademark is secured
by registration because:
• provides proof of ownership
• allows to flag infringement
 Trademarks
• Trademarks are identifiers
• Trademarks are a guarantee of good
quality
 Brand Brand
value: value:
$93.3 $46.9
Billion Billion
Brand Brand Brand
value: value: value:
$98.3 $59.5 $37.2
Billion Billion Billion

Brand Brand
value: value:
$78.8 $39.6
Billion Billion
Brand Brand Brand
value: value: value:
$79.2 $46.9 $35.3
Billion Billion Billion
Case study on Trademark Protection
• An Italian businessman buys unmarked t-shirts
from manufacturers of generic clothing, attaches
his trademark (Pickwick®, which pictures a
rebellious-looking teenager) and begins to sell
them to retail stores
• Started in a garage in the periphery of Rome
• Today the Pickwick trademark is perceived by
Italian teenagers as a synonym of style and
quality
• Pickwick has began to export its products
across Europe
• Its trademark is its most valuable asset.
 What happens when IP is not taken into account?
Case of Ethiopian coffee
Value Chain of Ethiopian Coffee:
GI Sidamo)

Beans processed
$2.7/kg (0.6)

TMs & Patent, Design & TMs (Nestlé)

franchising
(Starbucks)

$70/kg (15)
Packaged
Service products

$3/cup (100 per $80/kg (17)

cent return)
 Collective Marks
• Marks used to distinguish goods or
services produced or provided by
members of an association
• IPRs belonging to an association or
cooperative whose members use the
collective mark to market their product
• Set of criteria for using the collective mark
(e.g. quality standards)
 Rules and Benefit of using Collective Marks

Comply with rules, criteria, procedures

and sanctions set by the producers’
association. Requires Membership and
Quality Control

• Saving on registration cost, advertising

campaign, marketing, enforcement etc.
• Reputation on the basis of common origin
or other characteristics of the product
made by different producers
• May facilitate cooperation among local
producers and traders and enhance
quality control
 Certification Marks
• Marks used to distinguish goods or
services that comply with a set of
standards and have been certified by a
certifying authority
• Usually given for compliance with
defined standards, may be used by
anyone whose products meet certain
established and certified standards
 GEOGRAPHICAL INDICATIONS
Designation used on goods that have a
specific geographical origin and
possess qualities or a reputation that
are due to that location.
Geographical Indications:
• consists of the name of the place of origin of
the goods
• link a product to a particular region
• indicate qualities, attributes, reputation
associated with geographic origin
• suggest connection to region’s inherent
characteristics (e.g., soil, climate, terrior)
• may also imply production skills/processes
associated with region
GEOGRAPHICAL INDICATIONS
 AFRICAN GEOGRAPHICAL INDICATIONS

Penja pepper (Cameroun) Ziama-Macenta coffee (Guinea)

Oku Honney (Cameroun)

 INDUSTRIAL DESIGNS
The visual features of shape,
configuration, pattern or
ornament (or any combination of
these features) applied to a finished
made
article by hand, tool or
machine.
Designs makes a product attractive and
appealing; hence, they add to the
commercial value of a product and
increase its marketability.
• Design must be original

• Can be two or three-dimensional

INDUSTRIAL DESIGNS
INTEGRATED CIRCUITS -
TOPOGRAPHIES

3-D
configuration
of electronic
circuits
embodied in
integrated-
circuit
products or
INTEGRATED CIRCUITS -
TOPOGRAPHIES

Used in many
technologies, such
as:
• Computers
• Automobiles
• Pacemakers
• Industrial
robots
• Cameras
• Spacecraft
 TRADE SECRETS
A trade secret is any formula, pattern,
physical device, idea, process, or other
information that provides the owner of
the information with a competitive
advantage in the marketplace.
Trade secrets include marketing plans,
product formulas, financial forecasts,
employee rosters, logs of sales calls,
and similar types of proprietary
information.

Trade secrets MUST BE safeguarded by

stringent efforts to keep the
 PLANT VARIETY PROTECTION
• Provides legal Criteria to be
protection of a satisfied:
plant variety to a
breeder in the form NOVELTY
of Plant Breeder’s “DUS”
Rights (PBR) DISTINCTNESS
(DHS)
UNIFORMITY
STABILITY
• PBR are intellectual
property rights that
provide exclusive
rights to a breeder
of a registered
variety
 TRADITIONAL KNOWLEDGE

Any knowledge originating from a local

or traditional community that is the
result of intellectual activity and
insight in a traditional context,
including know-how, skills,
innovations, practices and learning,
where the knowledge is embodied
in the
traditional lifestyle of a community,
or contained in the codified
knowledge systems passed on from
 EXPRESSIONS OF FOLKLORE

Any forms, whether tangible or

intangible, in which traditional
culture and knowledge are
expressed, appear or are
manifested.
Swakopmund Protocol
CHALLENGES FACING DEVELOPING
COUNTRIES IN TAKING ADVANTAGE
OF THE INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
SYSTEM

THE CASE OF ARIPO MEMBER STATES

GLOBAL APPLICATIONS FILED AND TITLES IN FORCE IN 2013

IP REGIME APPLICATIONS TITLES IN FORCE

PATENTS 2.6 9.45
UTILITY 0.978 2.29
MODELS
TRADE 7.0 26.3
MARKS
INDUSTRIAL 1.2 2.98
DESIGNS

66% of all patent applications were filed by Residents

75% of Trademark applications were filed by Residents

98% of all Utility Models were filed domestically

 APPLICATIONS FILED IN SELECTED
NON-MEMBER STATES AND MEMBER
STATES
STATE/ORG. PATENTS UTILITY TRADEMARKS INDUSTRIAL
MODELS DESIGNS
OAPI 582 8 7743 899
NIGERIA 919 - 19,332 953
SOUTH 7295 - 36,070 2237
AFRICA
STATE PATENTS UTILITY TRADEMARKS INDUSTRIAL
MODELS DESIGNS
ARIPO 692 7 593 217
BW 9 3 2429 148
GM - 3 406 -
GH - - 3607 94
KE 241 78 4706 86
LS - - 1876 -
LI - - 2253 -
MZ - - 3121 -
NA - - 2686 -
RW 70 12 517 78
STP 8 - 1628 74
SL - - 2068 -
SD 157 - 4478 98
SW 3 - 2500 -
UG 14 - 2079 -
ZM 38 - 4090 12
 SECTORS WHICH RECEIVED THE
HIGHEST APPLICATIONS FOR PATENTS
AND TRADEMARKS
PATENTS TRADEMARKS
• Electrical, Machinery and • Agriculture
Energy (China) • Leisure and Education
• Computer Technology • Business
(US) • Research and Technology
• Optics (Japan) • Clothing
• Digital Communication
(China)
• Semiconductors (Korea)
• Medical Technology (US,
Europe)
 INDUSTRIAL DESIGNS
• Advertising

• Tools and Machines

• Furniture and household goods

• Transport

• Textiles and accessories (Germany,

Europe and Australia)
STATE NUMBER OF STATE NUMBER OF
UNIVERSITIES UNIVERSITIES
BW 12 UG 46
GM 1 ZM 27
GH 57 ZW 20
KE 47 Source: Unreliable
LS 2
LI 8
MW 20
MZ 22
NA 3
RW 24
STP 4
SL 6
SD 46
SW 4
TZ 43
 SME SITUATION IN AFRICA
• SMEs contain:
- Micro firms 1.9 employees
- Small firms 10-20 employees
- Medium firms 50-200 employees

CATEGORY SHARE OF ALL SHARE OF

FIRMS EMPLOYEES
Micro 90% 30%
Small 8% 20%
Medium 1.5% 10%
Large 0.5% 40%

Areas of focus; Textiles, Energy, Food and Agric., Manufacturing, ICT, etc
• High cost of obtaining intellectual property
rights

• Lack of capacity in Patent Drafting

• Lack of capacity in developing effective IP

strategies, valuation, licensing and
commercialization
 HOW DO WE TAKE
ADVANTAGE OF IP IN AFRICA
• Change mindset about IP

• Promote innovation culture/creativity

• Make strategic use of IP

Creativity and innovation are endemic to the human spirit
and the history of great writers and inventors is interwoven
in the history of humankind. We are unique as species in
part because we have the means to discover how we can
live better, happier and healthier lives. It has taken us from
the wheel to the airplane, from the light bulb to the radio
telescope, from the telegraph to the smartphone and from
the penicillin to what we hope will be viable treatment for
Ebola. Finding easier and better ways of living lives and
doing business is at the heart of everything that we do and
at the heart of our business and economic success.
Source: WIPO Magazine, 2014
Never ever give up
“Success is going
from failure to failure
without a loss of
enthusiasm”-
Winston Churchill

Because success is
built most often from
failure, you cant fear
rejection or lose
confidence in
yourself. You have
to keep moving
forward
esackey@aripo.org