Personal Finance

Follow laws that govern research

study

A woman at the Kenya National Library Services branch in Nyeri town. Copyright allows a researcher to control reproduction and distribution of work. Photo/FILE

Almost any consultancy work will involve an element of research and there are professionals whose work is to primarily conduct research.

For example, a marketing research firm is one that exists to give market research services to other businesses as a support service. Businesses and people who specialise in research have a few unique legal requirements.

One is on ownership of the research work. A lot of time is spent on research and sometimes it is an expensive affair, especially if it is a primary research.

Primary research is one that is undertaken for the first time where the researcher has no other literature or past studies to rely on when making his findings.

Such a study is in most cases expensive and time consuming compared to a secondary research where one relies on past literature.

It is important to establish ownership of a research beforehand. In many cases, if the study is done on request of a client, then the work belongs to the client.

However, where the research is done for purposes of re-sale, for example consumer trends, it is important to retain ownership of the work so as to gain commercially from it. The ownership can be protected through copyright.

An original research reduced into the form of an article qualifies for copyright protection. This protection lasts for 50 years after the lifetime of the researcher.

Copyright allows a researcher to control reproduction and distribution of his work to the limitation in the Copyright Act such as fair use.
Copyright also gives the researcher “moral rights”. These are rights to claim ownership of the work.

It is also important to ensure that you do not infringe on anybody else’s intellectual property rights while doing your research.

Where you have referred to another person’s work, it is important to state that in your research. In the case of A. Kukali versus Mary Ogola and University of Nairobi, the plaintiff successfully got remedy against the defendant.

The defendant presented the applicant’s thesis to University of Nairobi as her own. The plaintiff had already presented the same thesis to Maseno University and had a copyright over the thesis.

Researchers should refer to the Science, Innovation and Technology Act of 2013 which regulates the manner in which scientific research is to be carried out. Any such research must be licensed, save for where it is being done by institutions of learning such as universities.

The World Intellectual Property Organisation Development Agenda seeks to look into how poor countries can develop through intellectual property.

Mputhia is an advocate and a business strategist. [email protected]