Africa appears to be in a catch-22 as far as Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) are concerned. Should it have tighter regimes so as to attract foreign investments and encourage technology transfer? Or should it have softer IPR policies that encourage greater access to knowledge and technology?

It may seem like a chicken-and-egg scenario but in the meantime stakeholders in the East African region are moving to create IPR policies that reward innovation and encourage foreign investors to put their money in the region. Critical to the debate on science and technology capacity has always been the issue of IPR protection.

"In recent public policy discourse, there are those who argue that developing countries such as those of East Africa need to provide strong IPR protection regimes as a means of stimulating technological innovations, facilitating technology transfer and attracting Foreign Direct Investment," said Ronald Naluwairo, Research Associate at the Uganda-based Advocates Coalition for Development and Environment (ACODE).

"Yet others have challenged this assertion pointing out that the utility of IPR policy, legal or administrative regimes lies in their ability to harness IPR as a policy instrument for achieving clearly set development policy objectives," he added.

Intellectual property refers to creations of the mind: inventions, literary and artistic works, and symbols, names, images, and designs used in commerce. The World Intellectual Property Organisation

(WIPO) divides intellectual property into two categories. One is Industrial Property (IP), which includes inventions (patents), trademarks, industrial designs.

The other is Copyright, which includes literary and artistic works such as novels, poems and plays, films, musical works, artistic works such as drawings, paintings, photographs and sculptures, and architectural designs.

Some experts say with globalisation and changing technological environments fuelled by continuous innovation, we are currently living in an information society where a wealth of knowledge and information is available at our fingertips simply by searching the many Internet and World Wide Web sites, databases, and other information services.

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