Geographical Indication (GI) options for Ethiopian Coffee and Ghanaian Cocoa

Innovation & Intellectual Property
was no patented, locally developed Mozambican biofuel technology, and only one
patent originated from Africa (South Africa). (See Appendix for a listing of the
18 patents.) Fifteen of the biofuel patent applications had been filed via the PCT
International Bureau in Geneva, one had been filed via ARIPO in Harare, and two
had been filed directly with the IPI in Maputo. All but one of the patents had been
granted between 2008 and 2011, with the other patent granted in 2000.
Key findings that emerge from this biofuel patent picture are: the surge in biofuel
patenting activity from 2008 onwards; and the absence of locally developed
patented biofuel technology. This picture raises the spectre of foreign control over
biofuel technology implementation and development in Mozambique. However,
we are cognisant of the fact that none of the simple (first generation) technologies
cited in the aforementioned UNDESA study of 2007 are patented technologies.
Thus it seems clear that first generation biofuel techniques are largely in the public
domain in Mozambique, allowing for SME utilisation and adaptation. At the
same time, it seems clear that many second generation technologies are likely to
be under patent to a foreign firm at the time of their deployment in Mozambique.
The patent landscaping also found that patenting moves fast when companies
sense a violation is imminent somewhere in the world. Data provided by the IPI
showed that, as jatropha cultivation began to emerge in Mozambique for production
of biofuels, a Japanese company, Sumitomo Chemical Company, filed two
jatropha patents (related to controlling weeds in jatropha fields and controlling
diseases to which jatropha is susceptible). These moves by the Japanese company
show the efficiency and sensitivity of patent monitoring mechanisms by large
developed-world firms (see Appendix for the formal details of these two patents).
Interview findings
Interviews were conducted with:
● a representative of Sun Biofuels Mozambique (in Manica Province);
● a representative of an ADPP community biofuel project (in Cabo Delgado
Province); and
● a representative of Petromoc. 3
Sun Biofuels Mozambique
Sun Biofuels Mozambique is a subsidiary of Sun Biofuels UK (Sun Biofuels
Mozambique, n.d.). According to the interviewee, the company has developed
3 One of the authors of this chapter, Simão Pelembe, serves as a Legal Advisor to Petromoc.
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