adminStephen Chifunyise
In December 2014, a draft National intellectual Property Policy for Zimbabwe produced by the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Intellectual Property was distributed and reviewed at a three-day meeting held in Harare.
The meeting was attended by representatives of stakeholder organisations in the culture and creative industries, government departments , the World Intellectual Property Organisation and the African Regional Intellectual Property Office.
In June this year, the Secretariat of the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Intellectual Property distributed the draft intellectual property policy to organisations of creators requesting them for their comments, views and recommendations on the draft policy. What ever inputs received from the stakeholders will be taken on board by the inter-ministerial committee as it prepares the final draft intellectual property policy for validation by stakeholders scheduled for September.
Copies of the Draft National Intellectual Property Policy can be obtained from the Zimbabwe Intellectual Property Office in the Ministry of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs and collective rights management organisations-the ZIMCOPY and the Zimbabwe Music Rights Association.
The 22 paged draft policy is sub-divided into six sections. The first section is the introduction of the policy that recognises the implication and place of the intellectual property to the Zimbabwe Agenda for Social and Economic Transformation (ZIM-ASSET) and points out that “innovation and creativity are central to economic growth and development that intellectual property has become a significant factor in both creating and using ideas that are translated into knowledge and inventions to promote innovation and economic growth.”
The draft policy stresses that in “today’s world intellectual property is assuming great importance and has become one of the most eminent key drivers of economic development globally.”
The section concludes by stating that because of recognising the increased importance of intellectual property in knowledge economy, “the Government of Zimbabwe has developed the Intellectual Property Policy as a new growth area for the economy.”
The second section of the draft policy discusses the current situation and cites various conventions and protocols Zimbabwe has ratified as well as the different government departments with responsibilities for the administration of intellectual property.
It is in this section that the rationale, vision, mission and objectives of the intellectual property police are articulated.
One of the 15 objectives of the policy that is cited is “to promote and enhance value addition on primary commodities in all sectors of the Zimbabwean economy through the utilization of intellectual property assets.”
Most of the third section of the draft policy is devoted to sectoral approach to intellectual property and lists the sectors as follows: agriculture; industry; health; education and skills development; environment; culture; trade; tourism and small and medium enterprises.
The fourth section of the draft intellectual property policy deals with strategies which include: commercial exploitation of intellectual property; increasing access to finance and removing fiscal barriers; increasing security on created intellectual property; formulation of a national intellectual property market; products and service standardisation; production of a national licensing model; and the creation of a national licensing control and validation unit.
Other strategies cited in this section are: establishment of product development partnerships; creation of technology and innovation support centres; access to patent database; human resource development in the intellectual property field; intellectual property creation and management; promotion and communicating intellectual property activities; protection of Zimbabwean interests in the field of intellectual property(local intellectual property, community intellectual property and international intellectual property); enforcement of intellectual property law ; promotion of intellectual property systems and increasing the role of universities and research and development institutions.
The fifth section of the draft national intellectual property policy is about intellectual property competition, which deals with copyright and creative industries; regional and international cooperation; monitoring and evaluation of intellectual property law and activities.
The last section is devoted to a conclusion that stresses that intellectual property “is a major strategic asset for promoting innovation and technological development which in turn will enhance economic and social development if properly managed.”
Attached to draft national intellectual property policy is a report on needs evaluation development oriented intellectual property plan for Zimbabwe that was produced by a two member World Intellectual Property Organisation team of Donitey Ayitey and Willie Mushaya.
The report gives the background to intellectual property development strategy and needs evaluation.
This document articulates findings and recommendations under the following headings: readiness for the country for intellectual property strategy; country development potential; profile of intellectual property in the country and the status of the Intellectual Property Office.
Also featured as subject areas or headings in this report are: mobilisation of funds for intellectual property exploitation and economic activities; intellectual property value; stratification of intellectual property filing fees; trade and intellectual property rights; domestic intellectual property trade; international intellectual property trade; tourism; piracy; patent information; intellectual property training; intellectual property education and skills development; intellectual property rights and country education needs; intellectual property rights and cultural and national identity and intellectual property rights in arts and crafts.
The Action Plan for implementing the national intellectual property policy has six goals: 1)facilitation of the use of intellectual property for economic development; 2) facilitation of the use of intellectual property for science, technology and innovation; 3)facilitation of the use of intellectual property rights in other sectors; 4) facilitation of the use of intellectual property rights for growth and competitiveness of small and medium enterprises; 5) facilitation of the use of intellectual property rights in social development and 6) the facilitation of the use of intellectual property rights for cultural development.
In the area of capacity building the action plan for the implementation of the policy cites intellectual property infrastructure; intellectual property human resources and institutional capacity; setting up of intellectual property offices in provinces; the creation of an intellectual property academy; creation of a team intellectual property experts; consideration of lessons from best practices and the linking of proposed intellectual property policy to other polices that relate to intellectual property.
Although in the action plan for implementing the proposed national intellectual property policy, there are no time frames and indications of who is responsible for what are considered as critical strategies to achieve the objectives, the plan is comprehensive and can be time frame from the time the draft national intellectual property policy is adopted.
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