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.
