preamble

this article was drafted a long time ago but today 10/08/2016 i was greeted by news headline at the back page of the Malawian newspaper The Nation newspaper. both news items were write by Garry Chirwa and they were on Nyasa Big Bullets and its relationship with Nyasa manufacturing co. then the following below came to mind;

On the 4th January, 2016 I was greeted by the back page of the Nation Newspaper with a sports article written by Garry Chirwa. The article’s heading broadly headed “BB deals rolls out’. However what attracted my attention was the subheading which read ‘call them Nyasa Big Bullets’.  In a short appraisal of the article it reports that Big Bullets football club has managed to get a five-year sponsorship deal from a tobacco manufacturing company called Nyasa manufacturing Company (NMC) worth 500 million kwacha. This means they will be getting 100 million kwacha per year.  This means BB will be given over 8.3 million Malawi kwacha monthly. These are not small monies thus everyone would jump into signing the dotted lines.

Furthermore, it was reported that Samuel Chilunga, BB Chairperson, and Demo Kalaitzis, Managing Director of NMC, had confirmed the deal and that this was a strategic business partnership. The business partnership entails BB brand adding value through increased sales of NMC products, the branding of BB team’s kit and using the BB players as NMC brand ambassadors just to mention a few. The report was not specific as whether the BB team’s name would change as pointed out in the subheading.

I must add that I am not privy to the actual contract therefore my analysis is based on what I read as reported by the esteemed Garry Chirwa. From the reading of the report there are several things that come out as to this important sports deal for the footballing sector in Malawi. This deal brings to the fore intellectual property (IP) issues that have been created through this deal. The fundamental question is who owns or who will own these intellectual property assets, which have been created. Intellectual property is an aspect of property whose concern is the protection of creations of the mind through the law.

Firstly, it is to do with trade mark. Trade mark as an aspect of IP has been defines by International Trademark Association (INTA) as any word, name, symbol or device (or any combination thereof) that identifies and distinguishes the source of the goods of one party from that of another. Furthermore, trademarks must be registered in terms of the laws of each country and usually the application procedure and enforcement must be undertaken in terms of the laws each country. I am very much hoping that this trade mark has been registered or soon be registered at our intellectual property office at Registrar General.   This will be imperative because this will surely be a money puller since the team is Big Bullets is a peoples team which a crowd puller hence a money magnet. Therefore I hope the contract between the two entities has answered fundamental questions such as between these two parties who are forming an entity called ‘Nyasa Big Bullets’ who owns or will own this trademark? Or it will be the new entity? What happens when the agreement between the two entities elapses what would happen to ‘Nyasa Big Bullets’ as a trade mark?

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THE ROLE OF THE POLICE IN DOMESTIC VIOLENCE CASES

Domestic violence by definition is criminal in nature. This is per section 2 of the Prevention of Domestic Violence Act. The role of the Malawi Police Service is thus very imperative in that regard. This is so because the police station is the first place most victims will go to. Currently the Malawi Police Service has a unit called Victim Support Unit which does handle most of the case bordering on Domestic Violence matters. Therefore it becomes important for the society and the police officers to understand the role and the mandate of the Police Officers as per the Prevention of Domestic Violence Act.

• What are the duties of police officers in domestic violence matters?

Firstly, the duty of every police officer is to respond to every complaint or report alleging domestic violence whether or not the complainant is the victim. Furthermore, such police officer should actually put this complaint in writing with the following details

            (a)        the names of the parties;

            (b)        the relationship and sex of the parties;

            (c)        the date, place and time the alleged conduct occurred;

            (d)       information relating to the history of domestic violence between the parties;

            (e)        the date and time the complaint was received; and

            (f)        the type of abuse and the weapon used, if any.

Secondly, It is  upon the police officer who is recording a domestic violence complaint that he or she has ensured that the statement recorded is prepared in such a way that any court of law can use it since the same may be used as part of the evidence which the court would depend on  to arrive at a decision. This is very key in situation where the victim has decided not to testify, may be because the perpetuator of the domestic violence has intimidated the victim. 

The other duty the police have is to ensure that they obtain from the Court of law warrant of entry into a premise. The police officer applying for the warrant must satisfied the Court that there are reasonable grounds to suspect that a person on such premises has suffered or is in imminent danger of physical injury at the hands of another person in a situation amounting to domestic violence and needs assistance to deal with or prevent the injury and a police officer has been refused permission to enter the premises for the purpose of giving the assistance. The entry therefore must be done within 24 hours after obtaining such warrant by the Police officer.

Furthermore, every police officer has a duty to assist victims of domestic violence wherever he or she find them.

• What are the powers of police officers in domestic violence issues?

However, there would be situations where the police can entry a premise without court warrant.  This would be a situation where a police officer has reasonable cause to believe that a person is engaging in or attempting to engage in conduct which amounts to domestic violence and failure to act immediately may result in serious physical injury or death. So where a police officer exercises this power, he or she shall,  immediately thereafter, submit a written report to the Officer-in-Charge of Police of the area where the incident occurred.

 and the report shall contain the following information—

            (a)        the reasons for entering the premises without a warrant;

            (b)        the offence being committed or about to be committed; and

            (c)        the manner in which the investigation was conducted and the measures taken to ensure the protection and safety of the person at risk.

Any  police officer believes on reasonable grounds that a person who has been admitted to bail subject to one or more conditions referred to in subsection (2), has failed to comply with a condition of the recognizance, the police officer may, notwithstanding anything in any other written law, arrest the person without a warrant

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/role-police-domestic-violence-cases-patrick-mphatso-chinguwo?trk=prof-post

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY HARVESTING: THE WAY OUT FOR AN INDUSTRIALIZED DEVELOPED MALAWI [1]

Intellectual Property concept

Intellectual property is the protection of creations of the mind through the law. There are two broad sectors of intellectual property namely industrial Property and copyright. William Fisher holds that the term "intellectual property" refers to a loose cluster of legal doctrines that regulate the uses of different sorts of ideas and insignia.

Intellectual Property in Universities

Universities and research institutions do generate a lot of intellectual property assets. For example each student finishing university students in all Malawian public universities, as I am not sure of private universities, is supposed to do a research paper in partial fulfillment of the requirement for a degree. Most of these papers are based on the problems that our nation of Malawi is facing. This is what I refer to as a ‘solution mine’. It has always been said that a mine is a mine because it is being mined otherwise it is useless minerals.

As foresaid, these papers do offer intellectual property assets. For example in engineering students are coming up with irrigation innovations, in computer sciences software applications are being developed, in languages there are models that are being developed, just as well in law where legal problems are being solved.  

Therefore, industrialization of Malawi could even be easy by mere searching the ‘solution mine’ in the universities and research institutes. The good thing is that most of these solutions are Malawi oriented and adopted for her such that it would be easy to utilize. Why should our industry in Malawi be getting ‘solutions’ from outside Malawi and in the process sending money out as well as jobs.

Problems

1.      Publish or perish principle.

This is the idea that has been advanced in most our universities where the only way one gets the grades is when you write good academic papers and one gets promotion through publishing peer-reviewed papers as well as referred papers. This mentality has made our ‘industrialist’ to think that the university ‘solution mine’ is mere treasure of academic solutions and not practical industrial related solution.

   

2.      Lack of incentives

There is also at times the issue of incentivizing the creators of the IP.  Most of the outcomes of research consultations that are conducted by universities are wholly owned by the funders. In the long run the universities and the researches are deprived of ownership of IP.

3.      Theory to practice

The problem is that of theory based outcomes and not industry based solutions. This is related in most cases to attitude problem and not reality. There have been times that most of the researches conducted have been geared towards a theorization and at times out of touch with the solution needs of the industries.

Way out

1.      Sponsorship of researchers

It time for the industries to give resources to the universities to conduct industry related problem researches so that the solutions that have been harvested therein should be shared with the industries. For sure most of the universities have capacities in terms of human resources as well as material resources to conduct industry related solution based research

2.      Recognizing the creators

While financial rewards are sometimes available but in the long run reorganization of the creators of IP would be appropriate. For example, there could be an arrangement where the creator of the IP is also a partial own owner the IP asset so produced. This would make the universities and their researchers to willing collaborate with the industries to provide better solutions to the problems. This is moving towards encouraging universities and their researchers to engage with the industries.

3.      Industrial-University

The other way is for the universities to create their own companies that would be as a result of the universities creation of IP. For example the Polytechnic College would have its own car fabrication plant, Chancellor College could have its own Internet service provider, and LUANAR could have its own dairy product company just to mention a few examples.

4.      Digital divide utilization

Lastly, it is time to digitize the ‘solution mine’ which is available and this would make ‘mining’ by the industries easy and cheaper. In the process there is likely going to be a better synergy of the industry and the universities. This would surely bring the much needed resources and in the long run it would spar economic development for the country. When this happens the ‘zero deficit’ budget will be a reality and not a dream.

All in all it is time Malawi as country we start to take the intellectual property serious, especially how the IP assets can be commercialized for the benefit of the country. When we do this then it would be easier for the industry-university collaboration. These collaborations would increase the appreciation of Intellectual Property in the Malawian society and would lead to development of Malawi.  

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[1] I am a legal Practitioner with Legal Aid Bureau, Blantyre. Feedback to pmchinguwo@gmail.com