Intellectual property is leaving SA behind
Intellectual property or “creations of the mind” can go a long way in stimulating the country’s economy‚ but these ideas and innovations often skip the country’s borders and make other countries or companies millions of rands.
This according to the Department of Science and Technology and the National Intellectual Property Management Office (Nipmo)‚ which briefed Parliament’s select committee on communications and public enterprises.
Mmboneni Moufhe‚ deputy director general for technology innovation in the department‚ said what was important was to acknowledge that as a country‚ South Africa had been investing a lot of money in “knowledge generation” and development.
“As a result it is important to make sure that whatever knowledge we generate is actually properly protected. We’ve had some lessons in the past where knowledge is sometimes funded here and supported‚ and it somehow skips the borders and makes huge money for other countries and companies‚” said Moufhe.
He said an example of recent South African developments and ideas was the recent breakthrough in laser technology at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research‚ which was developed by young scientist Sandile Ngcobo.
Another example was the South African full-scale body scanner called Lodox‚ which ensured very low exposure to harmful radiation.
The Lodox Statscan was recently featured in the hit TV series Grey’s Anatomy and was first developed for use on the diamond mines of South Africa to prevent the smuggling and theft of diamonds by mineworkers in the 1980′s and 1990′s.
Head of Nipmo‚ Dr Kerry Faul‚ said intellectual property and innovation was a key driver for economic growth.
“It has been universally accepted that intellectual property and associated rights that go with it are critical for innovation and are critical for economic growth. We believe that intellectual property holds the key to our future in one or more forms.
“There are no approval and reporting requirements to stop our intellectual property from just leaving the shore without any benefit ever accruing to South Africa‚” said Faul.
She said to date the office had 961 disclosures on their database‚ 89 had been granted intellectual property rights and 42 had been commercialised.
“More than 89% of our database is in form of an invention and it can take five to 10 years to get a granted right for a patent‚” said Faul.
Source: RDM News Wire.
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