ITU partners with Kenya to strengthen intellectual property protection

Kenya and the UN agency on information and communication will collaborate to enhance intellectual property (IP) protection in the country, officials said on Sunday.

Communication Authority of Kenya (CA) Director General (DG) Francis Wangusi told a recent media briefing in Nairobi that Kenya has already contacted the Directorate of the Telecommunication Bureau at the International Telecommunication Union (ITU).

"We are going to visit the ITU in the next two weeks to discuss how to work with the organization in order to protect Kenyan innovators against predatory activities that make them lose their IP," Wangusi said.

Wangusi noted that Kenyan entrepreneurs are very innovative especially in the ICT sector, making the industry vulnerable to IP theft.

"We have witnessed situations where talented people have lost their innovations after entering into partnerships with large corporations," he said.

ITU plans to conduct a pilot study on IP in Kenya and the findings will be disseminated to the rest of the world.

"It will provide the basis of global efforts to protect innovations which are the catalysts for human development," Wangusi said. Kenya is a signatory of international IP laws.

"However, as a country we have not been enforcing the laws and this has affected the rate of innovations in the country," Wangusi added.

He said that Kenya will soon launch a nationwide sensitization campaign to ensure that innovators patent their IP.

"In countries where people are aware, it is not easy to use someone else IP's without adequate compensation," the DG said. Endit