THE government is finalising improvement of the National Intellectual Property Policy (IPP) that meets the environmental and technological changes of the world.
The completion of the policy will enable the country provide guidelines that strengthen the legal and institutional structures in managing intellectual property issues.
The Business Registration and Licensing Agency (BRELA) Acting Director of Intellectual Property, Ms Loy Mhando, told the `Daily News’ on Tuesday that the laws under review are the trade and services marks Act Cap 326 and the patents registration Act Cap 217.
“In industrial property we are going to add geographical indicators, industrial designs, community and certification marks and trade secrets which are not in the policy,” said Ms Mhando.
She said there are areas that are not currently protected by law and need improvements including geographical indicators, community and certification marks and industrial designs and trade secrets.
Last Friday, the Ministry of Investment, Industry and Trade, Permanent Secretary, Dr Hashil Abdallah, said during the Intellectual Property Day organised by BRELA that the ministry is working on the policy that will facilitate procedures for registry and various shields to strengthen protection.
The policy would also cater for new areas in the protection of intellectual property, he said.
The government continues to implement various strategies especially the implementation of the objectives of the plan to improve the business environment—blueprint—in order to create a better and enabling environment in all sectors including the area of intellectual property which is growing at the fastest pace in the world.
“The government has begun the process of reviewing the various intellectual property laws as some of these laws are outdate and some areas are not protected by law,” said Dr Abdallah.
Additionally, during the celebration of the Intellectual Property Day, the BRELA Advisory Board Member, Ms Judith Kadege, who represented the Chairperson, said that the registration system for the protection of intellectual property in the country would help to protect innovations made by various businesses and innovators especially when technology continues to grow rapidly.
The BRELA Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Mr Godfrey Nyaisa said that agency will continue to improve its internal registry system and put in place good strategies to improve services they provide and attract more innovators in order to increase the number of registries and protect their work as well as ensure that the innovators get the benefit of their jobs.
Mr Nyaisa said the strategies include the competitions and awards of creative property in the country which is expected to start soon, visiting stakeholders of creative property such as institutes and colleges as well as schools to provide education on patents and other issues of creative property.
He said the aim is to ensure that creative property is used as a catalyst for economic growth for individuals and the nation as a whole due to its importance in development.
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