Intellectual Property Rights and Innovations

Until recently, little attention was given to the new technologies, management practices and institutions communities have developed themselves – to “local innovation”. This refers to the dynamics of indigenous knowledge – the knowledge that has developed over time within a social group incorporating both learning from the experience of earlier generations and knowledge that has been gained in the meantime from whatever source and has been fully internalized within local ways of thinking and doing. The need to enhance local innovation is because diversity requires locally specific practices and rapidly changing conditions requires local capacities to adapt quickly.

Intellectual property refers to the creation of a human mind or intellect. It refers to human ideas that can translate into products or services. It gives commercial rights to the holder for a period of time. These rights are territorial. The intellectual property rights are intangible; however, they can be sold, leased, licensed, mortgaged and acquired.

Intellectual rights should be protected so as to encourage investors, innovators, designers, singers, breeders by giving incentives to monopolise and commercialise their ideas into products. Secondly protection of these rights would attract foreign direct investments, technology transfers and licensing agreements. Thirdly it would promote trade industrialisation and research and development in public research institutes and universities. Lastly it would provide a pool of state of the art technology for further research and use.

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