Modern-day factors that are critical for improving a country’s competitiveness have evolved from a focus on resource endowments to a focus on the growing importance of knowledge in enhancing development and economic growth.
From a science and technology policy perspective, this will be achieved through transformation to a knowledge-economy, which is understood as one in which knowledge is the basic form of capital and economic growth is driven by innovation.
South Africa’s ability to create and subsequently to derive enduring benefits from the knowledge-economy is dependent on the extent to which we are able to translate our publicly funded research and development into innovative products and services that can be commercialised for the benefit of all South Africans.
Higher education institutions, as the public custodians of the country’s knowledge-generation capacity, play a crucial role in nurturing greater levels of knowledge.
Yet, according to McLean Sibanda, senior patent attorney at the Innovation Fund, “at present there are a number of South African universities that have not yet developed sufficient capacity to identify, protect and commercialise the knowledge that results from the publicly funded research conducted by their researchers”.
In this context the Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) from Publicly Financed Research Bill has been drafted by the department of science and technology to support higher education and other research institutions to clarify the roles and responsibilities of various stakeholders in respect of publicly financed intellectual property (IP) and its management.
Sibanda, who has been seconded to the department to support the development of the IPR Bill, says that the Bill gives “guidance to institutions on how best to manage IP, as well as the much-needed support and infrastructure to ensure that publicly financed IP gets out into the market place and is utilised.”
Key to this, the Bill is aimed at facilitating the creation of new knowledge that is derived from public funding and to secure this knowledge in the form of IP rights, including, but not limited to, patents for IP that could have economic and social benefits for human wellbeing.
The Bill proposes that universities and science councils retain IP rights for publicly funded discoveries made by their researchers.
Preference in respect of the commercialisation of this IP should be given to local firms and to small and black-empowered businesses, although the institutions generating the IP will have the right to structure the best deal.
To achieve these objectives, the Bill provides for the creation of offices of technology transfer (OTT) at public research and development institutions to support these institutions in the management of revenues generated from the commercialisation of their IP. This will include providing critical support in terms of the oversight of effective IP registration, as well as the negotiation of benefit-sharing agreements, among other things.
The establishment of OTTs will be supported and financed through the establishment of the National Intellectual Property Management Office — or Nipmo — under the department of science and technology.
The Nipmo will be responsible for administering an intellectual property fund, which will provide financial support to institutions for statutory protection and maintenance of IP rights.
According to Dhesigen Naidoo, director of research at the University of Pretoria, “the vision of the IPR bill is very useful for universities. It refocuses the attention of the private sector on universities as a primary repository of knowledge upon which we can build South Africa’s innovation platform and knowledge economy.
“We are counting on the Bill to create a badly needed momentum to stream younger people into the sciences (natural, engineering and social) as the new innovation platform introduces the possibilities of a much wider spectrum of rewarding career opportunities for the country’s youth,” says Naidoo.
The IPR Bill has been drafted as a result of an identified need for the creation of an enabling legislative framework for the effective management of IP emanating from publicly financed research, as originally envisaged in the 2002 Research and Development Strategy.
This will also ensure that government derives maximum benefit from its investment in research at universities and science councils.
The department of science and technology has run consultative stakeholder workshops across the country to elicit the views of researchers, industry, universities and science councils.
In March 2008 an international panel of IP experts submitted its final comments on the Bill.
A special stakeholder meeting was also held, which led to the amendment of the IPR Bill taking into account the public comments received to date.
At present the Bill is with the office of the state law adviser for certification, after which it is envisaged that it will be referred to Parliament for the consideration of the portfolio committee on science and technology.
Nhlanhla Nyide is the chief director for communication at the Department of Science and Technology.