Online Reporter
Wallace Ruzvidzo
Herald Reporter
ZIMBABWE is working on comprehensive training of law enforcement agencies to ensure they have full appreciation of intellectual property, Industry and Commerce Minister Mangaliso Ndlovu has said.
In an interview after a closed-door meeting with visiting World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) director-general Mr Daren Tang in Harare yesterday, Minister Ndlovu said IP issues were more important now than ever.
About 70 percent of IPs being registered were no longer coming from the usual Western countries, but from Asia, Africa and the Pacific, something that Minister Ndlovu said was reflective of Africans’ commitment to protecting their innovations.
“And this has to be encouraged,” he said.
“We are working on a programme where there will be comprehensive training of our enforcement agencies, be it your ZIMRA, our police, our judges, so that they have full appreciation of intellectual property.
“We see it (IP) driving industrialisation because really, for a country to benefit, it is not in your trade, in your primary products, but as you come up with your ideas on how you can validate and beneficiate, protect them and this then gives you greater benefits.”
Minister Ndlovu said the pledge made by WIPO to assist Zimbabwe in coming up with a new intellectual property strategy was “very important”, especially realising that people across these sectors have generally low uptake of IP.
“There are so many great innovations by our people, but they are easily imitated and people even build on them to register and appear to have come up with great innovations.
“So, for us to have a coordinated strategy around IP, this will greatly benefit our country,” he said.
The visit by the WIPO director-general comes soon after President Mnangagwa set up an Inter-Ministerial Committee, which puts emphasis on IP and protection against counterfeit products.
The Inter-Ministerial Committee is chaired by Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ziyambi Ziyambi.
“So, this is a very important area where our innovative people, be it in academia, in business, arts and various areas, are able to protect their hard work and their innovations by registering intellectual property.
“Most of (all) in Zimbabwe, where we have such a scourge in counterfeit products, people who are free riders as it were; you work so hard to create something and maybe through an oversight or even if you have registered, they want to come and imitate your products.
“So, the focus is on trying to encourage innovators to register their intellectual property, but more importantly to say those who are free riders in Zimbabwe have no space for such,” he said.
Minister Ndlovu explained that free riders often led to organised crime and at the moment, people were consuming counterfeit drugs leading to loss of innocent lives.
Mr Tang, who has been in the country on a three-day visit, also paid a courtesy call on President Mnangagwa at State House in Harare on Monday.
His visit to Zimbabwe was the first by a WIPO director-general.
He also held engagements with various ministers.
