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

Chapter 13
Effects of the South African IP Regime on
Generating Value from Publicly Funded Research:
An Exploratory Study of Two Universities
Caroline Ncube, Lucienne Abrahams and Titilayo Akinsanmi
Abstract
This study analyses evidence from two South African universities of how innovation activity
and research dissemination are being influenced by a new intellectual property (IP) commercialisation
law for publicly funded research outputs. The study sought to understand the ways
in which the Intellectual Property Rights from Publicly Financed Research and Development
(IPR-PFRD) Act of 2008 and its Regulations influence the generation of value from research.
The study was positioned within a theoretical frame which holds that maximalist approaches
to IP protection tend to be sub-optimal for certain long-term socio-economic objectives inherent
in research funding. The research found evidence of adaptation by both of the universities
studied (UCT and Wits University) to the requirements of the Act, and evidence that the Act
can have a positive influence on South Africa’s innovation nexus provided that the Act’s patenting
orientation continues to be complemented by openness-oriented research dissemination
and collaboration practices, including open access (OA) scholarly publishing.
1. Introduction and research design
The research outlined in this chapter investigated the potential impact of South
Africa’s Intellectual Property Rights from Publicly Financed Research and
Development (IPR-PFRD) Act 51 of 2008 and its 2009 Regulations on the commercialisation
of research and on research dissemination, including scholarly
publishing. The study focused on practices at two leading public universities:
the University of Cape Town (UCT) and Johannesburg’s University of the
Witwatersrand (Wits University).