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Intellectual property vital for Tanzania’s innovative solutions, know-how in global competition
2005-05-18 08:01:53
By Michael Haonga
The first ever workshop in African by the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO ) Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) Division , has in no uncertain terms cited problems facing developing countries such as Tanzania in gaining from what falls within their mandate and natural endowments.
These include challenges emanating from little positive or false awareness on the importance of using Intellectual Property in SMEs activities for protection of originality and inventions made.
This was observed at the May 10 –11, 2005 Dar es Salaam workshop by a Geneva, Switzerland-based WIPO resource person, Christopher Kalanje, a Tanzanian.
He cited four reasons why some SMEs do not use Intellectual Property (IP) .
The four reasons include: a) regarding IP as being a complex system, b) IP as being too costly, c) IP as being irrelevant , and worse still d) some people not being aware of IP, a factor, he said, was found from research.
He said based on such research findings it has been deemed necessary to conduct educational awareness in multi-dimensional form ranging from workshops, seminars, written articles to electronic media exposure, with the concluded Dar es Salaam workshop being one case in point to that end.
Jointly organized and funded by WIPO and the Tanzania Chamber of Commerce, Industries and Agriculture (TCCIA), the Dar es Salaam workshop focussed on how Intellectual Property can enhance Business for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) .
It also aimed at enhancing increased awareness on SMEs, supporting institutions and other stakeholders on effective use of Intellectual Property (IP) after portraying why some SMEs do not use IP.
In his portrayal of IP in Tanzania, the Chief Executive Officer of Business Registration and Licensing Agency (BRELA), E. E. Mahingila said IP has on a number of times been assumed by many that it was purely an abstract concept, devoid of any concrete societal realization.
'On the contrary, Intellectual Property like any other form of property, although intangible, is capable of being owned, transferred and modified,' he told participants at the workshop.
It was noted that IP could be regarded as intangibles creativity and tangibles .and that in Tanzania IP is a new concept with the exception of few people who know that it came with the colonial administration far from the year 1922.
It was further revealed that immediate post-independent Tanganyika did not have any significant change in the contents of the IP legal system, save the Copyright Ordinance Cap 218 that was repealed by Copyright Act No. 61 of 1966 and later in 1999 being replaced by the current Copyright Legislation.
Other developments to that end resulted in the 1986 Trade Marks Act No.12, the 1987 Patents Act , but with each part of the Union of Tanganyika and Zanzibar having its own IP.
Internationally, Tanzania is a member of the Paris and Berne Conventions and in 1983 it joined WIPO.
In 1999 it became a member of the Patent Cooperation Treaty and the World Trade Organization, which automatically makes Tanzania a member of the trade related aspects of IP referred to as TRIPS Agreement.
During the colonial administration, the forms of intellectual property then in existence were mainly to protect the rights of the subjects who came and settled in the country as well as the colonial power and its allies.
It may even be said that 'intellectual property had little or no value to indigenous Tanzanians.'
Notes the BRELA boss adding that such a position was maintained even after Tanzania attained its independence in 1961 because '…indigenous Tanzanians did not have any objects of protection in the conventional sense.'
It is for instance underlined that SMEs in Tanzania can indelibly gain when people running them are kept abreast with IP’s important role in protecting their inventions amid latest developments in information technology.
Tanzania is a member of the African Regional Intellectual Property Organization (ARIPO) based in Harare, Zimbabwe, and has established a Business Registration and Licensing Agency (BRELA) to which SMEs have access.
Headed by a Tanzanian, E. E. Mahingila, its Chief Executive Officer, BRELA’s role as an executive agency established under the Executive Agencies Act No. 30 of 1997, is to provide formalization of enterprises including SMEs.
It is also charged with the role of assisting the enterprises including SMEs to use Intellectual Property to increase their productivity and enhance competitiveness nationally and internationally.
It is also charged with the administration of industrial property laws in Tanzania and administers the Patents Act No. 1 of 1987 and Trade and Service Marks Act No. 12 of 1986.
Under such legal backing it is held that manufacturing enterprises have the opportunity to enhance the quality and sometimes the quantity of their products in markets if proper technology is applied in the production.
This is seen to be facilitated if enterprises access proper technology through patent documents which contain the largest source of technological information in the world.
In Tanzania such documents are available free of charge in BRELA offices and through the internet and. according to BRELA, an enterprise could have access to eight options to help them use patent information.
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