The business world is increasingly becoming complex as the world evolves, giving way to intense competition in the limited marketspace. It is in trying to outdo one another that businesses have to come up with exciting brands.

That is where copyrights come in and with it, contested ideas, trademarks, innovations and designs.

But just how much do Rwandans know about intellectual property rights?

That is one of the questions being discussed by experts at an ongoing three-day seminar that started in Kigali, yesterday, on how to better use intellectual property for business competitiveness in the context of a fast developing African continent.

The seminar is organised by Rwanda Development Board (RDB), in partnership with the 18-member African Regional Property Organisation (Aripo) to which Rwanda subscribes.

Registrar-General Louise Kanyonga and the Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Trade and Industry, Emmanuel Hategeka, both caution that such fights might only escalate as Rwanda transforms into a knowledge based economy, a target set for 2020.

"The future is imbedded in new ideas as factors of production in a knowledge based economy; intellectual property is all around us, every service available is a result of someone’s innovation,” Kanyonga said.

She expressed her concern that while the government has put in place all necessary legal and policy frameworks under which people can protect their intellectual properties, there’s still laxity which she attributes to general lack of awareness.

"That’s why this seminar is very important and timely as we expect participants who include members of the private sector to learn a lot from interaction with the experts,” Kanyonga said.

Fernando dos Santos, the director general of Aripo said the idea of the ‘national roving seminar’ is the organisation’s effort to drum up intellectual property awareness among the people in member states.

"We need governments to put in place robust intellectual property systems but governments can’t work alone, the private sector must be at the vanguard of these efforts,” he said.

Hategeka, who officially opened the seminar yesterday, emphasised the importance of protecting one’s intellectual property to avoid losing them to competitors.

"It’s a serious matter that should concern everyone; it’s important that we generate more intellectual property but also protect and use them competitively,” he said.

Hategeka noted that although over 860 trademarks have been registered for protection since 2009 by the Registrar-General’s office at RDB. He expressed concern that so many other ideas, innovations and trademarks out there remain unprotected.

"As a result, I have heard of cases of companies that are in court fighting over a trademark,” he said.

Harmonise regional laws

Christopher J. Kiige, the director of industrial property at Aripo, said to end such disputes, the region must expedite the harmonisation of all relevant laws and regulations on patents so that if a trademark is registered in Tanzania, it’s automatically covered in Rwanda, Kenya and Uganda.

"The region is not currently harmonised in regards to intellectual property; that is a risk to trade because intellectual property is linked to trade and if patents are not harmonised then there will be such conflicts,” said Kiige.

Kiige added that the current disputes are a result of a disparity in intellectual property rules of the different EAC partner states. These, he said, need to be harmonised as a matter of urgency.

He added that East African states can benefit from being members of Aripo as the organisation has instruments in place that can guide the region on how to harmonise their intellectual property regimes.

"The problem we have with our members is that they take long to adopt the bills, when they draft bills, mainly on intellectual property (IP), they take years in parliament because the knowledge among Members of Parliament on the subject is very low,” said the expert.

However, Hategeka faulted intellectual property owners for not being proactive enough in seeking copyright protection in countries where they potentially have business interest, saying that the government has put the necessary frameworks in place to facilitate that.

"The first responsibility and interest must be with the intellectual property owner. It’s important that they protect their interests everywhere otherwise they will pay the price when someone else (competitor) moves faster than them,” Hategeka said.

"It’s possible for someone to protect their patents in all the 18 members of Aripo by simply applying through the national office and the patent would be protected in all the other member states.”

The PS also warned against unbecoming conduct where some people might use patents to block competition.

"Our rules on unfair competition are clear; it’s punishable if proven, patent laws should not be used to block but rather to promote fair competition and innovation,” Hategeka said.

Copying is good

Rwanda became a member of Aripo in 2011 joining East African counterparts Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda in an organisation that was established through the Lusaka Agreement of 1976 to promote cooperation on patents and other intellectual property rights among members.

However, Kiige said most African countries are yet to exploit commercial benefits that come with intellectual property rights.

"In Africa we are still a consumer society, we are not creative, we need to learn from the Asian Tigers such as China that started by copying other people’s ideas, and now they have moved from copying to adding value,” Kiige said.

He said there are hundreds of patents owned in Europe and other parts of the world but are not protected in many African countries, adding that these should be exploited in Africa in collaboration with their owners.

"I can adopt your idea and improve on it. In the patent system, protection is important but the main emphasis is on exploitation because an idea/patent can stay there for years without being exploited, which is useless.

There are new ideas everywhere and most of them are unprotected in Africa which means we have free access, we should be thinking of how to exploit them, the problem is that we insist on being consumers not innovators,” he said.

editorial@newtimes.co.rw