Nega was speaking yesterday at the Science with Africa conference organized by the UN ECA in Addis Ababa.
In response to a question from the audience, she agreed that “there is a serious problem” with African countries not being well-established with regard to the WTO TRIPs Agreement and further IP negotiations. “There is a lack of capacity and common positions,” she said. “We have a lot of policy work to do.”
In particular, Nega said developing countries should work to move the debate on IP rights on to issues such as access to information and search materials, perhaps at organizations such as UNESCO. “IP rights are being considered as a technical issue, not for their socio-economic impact,” she added.
She also said that very few least-developed countries (LDCs) have taken advantage of provisions in TRIPs Article 67, which provides for technical assistance from developed countries, because they do not understand what is at stake.
This has also led to some LDCs adopting stricter rules than the minimum TRIPs requirements, she added.
Naga urged African countries to be involved with debates about emerging IP issues, such as access to life-saving medicines, copyright extension, patentability and fair-use exemptions, and pointed out that the TRIPs Agreement applies to all countries, both developed and developing.
Naga was taking part in a session on IP rights, patents and technology transfer, moderated by Sir Magdi Yacoub of Imperial College London and Tom Hurley of the African Development Bank.
Other speakers on the panel addressed the lack of understanding of IP in Africa, and the need to raise awareness. F K Mpanju, a patent examiner with the African Regional IP Organization, which grants patents in 16 English-speaking countries in southern Africa, said that ignorance of IP leading to early publication of research meant that local patent applications are very low.
To address this, ARIPO has reduced the cost of applying for utility models, which provide protection for seven years, and is organizing a series of seminars. It also opened a training centre in 2006 and has an open database.
Speakers also discussed the link between IP, technology transfer and access to research.
Harry Thangaraj of the Centre for the Management of Intellectual Property in Health Research & Development urged African scientists to use IP rights to create partnerships with industry, and to use patents as negotiating tools rather than spurning them.
He said that this did not mean losing control over the application of technology and in particular its use in tackling developing-world diseases: “You can retain rights by putting clauses in the licensing agreement.”
“Industry will not necessarily block technologies. It is possible to negotiate,” said Thangaraj. But he added that patent rights should be respected.
Some of the biggest concerns of African researchers relate to the access to scientific information, including patents. Addressing this issue, Getachew Mengistie, director general of the Ethiopian IP Office, explained how the Office has built up a database of 30 million patent documents, and receives on average six to eight information requests each day, most of them relating to agricultural and chemical technologies.
Mengistie gave several examples of local companies that had benefited from access to this information, such as the Zamilli Paint Factory (which has developed local manufacture of inks, saving one-third on the cost of imports) and the Bekas Chemical Company (which has improved its production of adhesives and applied for utility model protection).
The Science with Africa conference, which runs all this week, has attracted more than 600 scientists, policy makers and academics from Africa and beyond.
