The creative sector in Kenya has the potential to earn the government
a lot of revenue in taxes. According to statistics, the creative sector
contributes about five per cent of the gross domestic product.
The
creative sector includes art, fashion, music, film, performing arts,
books, software, gaming, television, radio and advertising. It is,
therefore, critical for creatives to understand how best to manage their
talent and works to reap maximum benefit.
The first thing anyone
in the creative sector ought to understand is the extent of intellectual
property rights protection in their work. Whether a writer, a singer, a
gamer or a radio show host. Understanding their intellectual property
rights is very integral to exploiting their work for maximum benefit.
Protection
Most
of the work in the creative sector is protectable as copyright.
Copyright is that type of intellectual property right that protects
creations of the mind. Copyright protects how work is expressed. It does
not extend to the protection of ideas.
In this article, I
highlight intellectual property strategy as a talent management tool.
Most creatives earn a lot of money from their works, including their
talent. How do they make money from their talents?
The first is to
understand that your copyright falls into various sub-classes,
including literary, visual, audio-visual and computer programmes, among
others. You will need to classify the type of copyright. A book, for
example, is a literary work while a video would fall under audio-visual.
Each sub-class extends copyright protection for several years.
Copyright
gives the owner two broad rights. Understanding these is essential to
managing your talent. Some rights granted to the owner of copyright
include the controlling sales, exploitation, distribution and
reproduction of the works. What this means is that third parties cannot,
for example, make copies of your works to distribute without your
consent. Such consent can be granted in exchange for money known as
royalties.
As a creative, you need an exploitation strategy. Some
of the considerations in the exploitation strategy include whether to
sell or license your work. As an artist, for example, you may opt to
sell your painting entirely or choose to license it out to an
entertainment facility. They will be allowed to display it for a certain
monthly fee (royalty).
A creative needs a team of professionals
to effectively manage one and the talent. You will need an agency, a
manager who may double up as your public relations representative. A
lawyer will assist you in protecting your talent, enforcement against
infringement and commercialisation.
As a creative, find out which
collective management organisation (CMO) is best suited to your works.
Singers, for example, had the Music Copyright Society of Kenya. A CMO is
a society formed under the statute to collect royalties and enforce
other intellectual property rights of members as applicable.
As a
creative, it is not enough to only protect your works. You will need to
enforce against any infringement through the various enforcement
mechanisms available. A good intellectual property rights lawyer should
assist with enforcement.
As a creative, find out the best way to distribute your works.
Fortunately, there are many digital platforms through which your works can reach the audience.
An
e-book, for example, can be sold digitally via Amazon. You will need to
use digital rights management software to protect your work.
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