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

Perspectives on Intellectual Property from Botswana’s Publicly Funded Researchers
●
●
●
promoting and marketing opportunities for technology transfer to
potential industry partners;
negotiating licences with industry partners and other stakeholders for
inventions which arise from UB research; and
creating strong relationships between the UB research community and
business, government, NGOs and other relevant stakeholders which can
facilitate the translation of knowledge into products, policies and services
(UB, 2008).
Ministerial powers and parastatal institutions
The Department of the Registrar of Companies, Business Names, Patents, Trademarks,
Utility Models, and Industrial Designs, which operates within the Ministry
of Trade and Industry, is responsible for implementing the IPA. The Department
houses a National Enquiry Point (NEP) for IP matters. This NEP is a Joint Integrated
Technical Assistance Programme (JITAP) project supported by the World Trade
Organisation (WTO), the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD)
and the International Trade Centre (ITC). JITAP initiatives aim to help African
member countries benefit from multilateral trade. The NEP is open to government
officials, business representatives, university professors and students. Interested
parties can obtain trade-related information resources with a specific emphasis on
the WTO TRIPS Agreement (Government of Botswana, n.d.).
Botswana’s Minister of Trade and Industry is empowered by the IPA to exploit
a patented invention under compulsory licence (without authorisation of the
owner) in the interests of nutrition, national security or health, or for the development
of a vital sector of the national economy. Further, where the court determines
that exploitation of a patent by the owner or licensee is anti-competitive,
the Minister may infringe upon the owner’s/licensee’s patent rights in order to
alleviate the anti-competitive situation (IPA of 2010; Benett and Chilume, 2007).
Other ministries also play a role in fields related to IP, in particular science
and technology. In 1979, the Ministry of Infrastructure, Science and Technology
(MIST) implemented, as a parastatal, the Botswana Technology Centre (BOTEC).
BOTEC is part of a deliberate federal effort in Botswana to integrate traditional
knowledge (TK) within international structures of IP. It aims to bridge publicly
funded research institutions – such as UB, the Botswana Export Development
and Investment Authority and the Botswana Innovation Hub (BIH) – with TK.
BOTEC is viewed by international organisations such as WIPO as a successful
model for other developing African countries to follow. BOTEC also played a
critical role in developing the TK aspects of the new IPA of 2010. Today, BOTEC’s
mandate is tied to Botswana’s Vision 2016 programme.
343