Columnists

Weak inventions regime hurting commercialisation of top ideas

BDIntellectualproperty

Weak IP regime in Kenya hurting commercialisation of top ideas. FILE PHOTO | SHUTTERSTOCK

In 2008, Kenya launched an ambitious long-term development strategy to become a globally competitive and prosperous nation by the year 2030.

Innovation plays a key role in the modern economy by boosting wealth creation, social welfare, international competitiveness, and the attainment of Sustainable Development Goals.

The country has just had its inaugural Kenya Innovation Outlook which provides a foundation for tracking innovation processes and activities thereby strengthening the coordination and investments in strategic innovative activities.

There have been efforts to support the establishment of technology transfer units (TTUs). However, the TTUs are relatively under-skilled and most of the researchers are not aware of how to patent and protect their intellectual property (IP).

From a broader perspective, a weak IP regime in Kenya is a major impediment to commercialisation and a key barrier to the innovation pipeline.

The weak regime allows potential dangerous counterfeits to flood the market which disincentivizes genuine and robust innovation and hampers economic development.

There is a need to develop a robust IP framework that incentivises innovators to commercialise their innovations.

Compared to the TTUs, other commercialisation platforms such as start-ups and incubators appear to accelerate commercialisation owing to their stronger interactions with the external innovation environment.

As part of enhancing this process, Kenya National Innovation Agency (KeNIA) is working to establish an Innovation Bridge Platform.

However, start-ups are concentrated in major urban centres.

There is a need to enhance seed funding support for rural-based formal and informal innovations.

KeNIA has also established several key catalytic interventions to help identify existing and emerging innovations and catalyse their scaling up.

These include scaling-up awareness platforms such as the annual Kenya Innovation Week where innovative ideas and practices from across the country are showcased.

There are also regional platforms developed by the Ministry of ICT to promote linkages and knowledge transfer between innovation actors.