<p><a href="http://www.ip-watch.org/weblog/2010/06/08/information-the-lifeblood-of-development-flows-in-rwanda/">http://www.ip-watch.org/weblog/2010/06/08/information-the-lifeblood-of-development-flows-in-rwanda/</a></p><p>
Intellectual Property Watch<br><strong>8 June 2010</strong></p>
<h2 class="posttitle">
New Rwanda IP Policy Taps Information For Development </h2>
<small>By
<a href="http://www.ip-watch.org/weblog/author/kaitlin/" title="Posts by
Kaitlin Mara">Kaitlin Mara</a>
@ 4:33 pm</small>
<p>“Information is the lifeblood of development,” says the
government of Rwanda in a recently-adopted intellectual property policy,
part of the country’s comprehensive development strategy. The new
policy attempts to integrate Rwanda into the international IP system
while simultaneously safeguarding the freedom it needs to drive its own
innovation system.<br>
<span id="more-11186"></span><br>
There are several specific characteristics of Rwanda’s innovation system
that needed to be addressed with the formulation of the law, says the
text of the new Rwandan intellectual property policy, <a href="http://www.ip-watch.org/weblog/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/RWANDA-IP-POLICY-1.doc">available
here</a> [doc]. The policy provides the rationale, objectives and
context for Rwanda’s adoption of new policy for IP rights. The country
also passed a new IP law. A copy of the IP law text is <a href="http://afro-ip.googlegroups.com/web/rwanda+law.pdf?gda=OWtI_kIAAADTaftu43V1xrklMoxl309c9RDtOwTvWyMp_o540rfoQpulJ3jjO3kGu5xetZ-2tm1V4u3aa4iAIyYQIqbG9naPgh6o8ccLBvP6Chud5KMzIQ&hl=en-GB">now
available here</a> [pdf], in Rwanda’s three major languages.</p>
<p>These characteristics include: few resources dedicated to innovation,
a “system dominated by minor and/or incremental innovations,” small
firms not always stable over the long-term needed for research and
development, reliance on informal practices and government support
rather than the private sector, and outside dominance of key innovation
sectors.</p>
<p>The goal with the new intellectual property policy, then, was to
stimulate local investment. It is a “future-oriented” policy, Christoph
Spennemann of the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) said
in an interview with <em>Intellectual Property Watch</em>. UNCTAD
provided technical assistance to Rwanda in the drafting of the new
policy, as did the International Centre for Trade and Sustainable
Development (ICTSD).</p>
<p>And today, Rwanda submitted to the World Trade Organization its
priority needs for technical and financial cooperation. Least developed
countries have been invited to do this in the lead-up to their deadline
for implementing the WTO Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of
Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), currently set for 2013. Sierra
Leone, Uganda and Bangladesh have <a href="http://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/trips_e/ldc_e.htm#submissions">previously
submitted</a> such needs assessments to the TRIPS Council.</p>
<p>The new policy focuses on making use of key resources, access to
technologies for local innovators, rewards for the kind of incremental
innovation that is most prevalent in the nation, and long-term
sustainability.</p>
<p>It has six major policy objectives. It aims to increase technological
literacy and skills; promote innovation, including incremental
innovation; and increase access to existing technologies; increase
access to IP-based goods and services, especially those related to
agriculture and health, and including through the use of IP system
flexibilities. It also will facilitate investment in creative
activities, including through effective use of IP rights to ensure
compensation to inventors and the elimination of unfair competition; and
increase the protection of traditional knowledge and equitable and fair
access to genetic resources and benefit-sharing. </p>
<p>The development of a special law on traditional knowledge and genetic
resources is mandated by the IP law, according to the law.
Consultations with national stakeholders and experts are planned to help
draft this special law. </p>
<p>History</p>
<p>The process of drafting the policy began with requests for technical
assistance from the Rwandan Ministry of Trade and Industry – which
handles the country’s IP law – to UNCTAD and to the International Centre
for Trade and Sustainable Development. </p>
<p>At a stakeholder meeting held in Kigali, Rwanda in September 2008, it
became clear that traditional knowledge, folklore and handicrafts were
considered important areas for the IP policy. UNCTAD and ICTSD then
undertook a fact-finding mission, culminating in a <a href="http://ictsd.org/downloads/2009/03/programme2.pdf">national
workshop</a> [pdf] on a needs assessment prepared by UNCTAD and ICTSD
and on a draft IP policy for the country. This took place in March 2009.</p>
<p>On 24 March 2010, the draft policy was approved by the Rwandan
Cabinet. </p>
<p>UNCTAD and ICTSD are also carrying out similar technical assistance
programmes in Uganda and Cambodia. </p>
<p>Implementing the New Law</p>
<p>The first stage in implementing the new policy is the creation of a
Rwanda Development and Intellectual Property Forum, a collaboration of
government ministries, universities and research institutions with the
private sector and nongovernmental groups. Other aspects of
implementation will follow from there, according to a timeline appended
to the policy.</p>
<p>There are several unique aspects of Rwanda’s IP policy.</p>
<p>One way to incentivise incremental innovation detailed in the law is
through the use of “petty patents” or “utility model certificates.”
These provide for a shorter exclusivity period and do not have the
requirement (or have a very low threshold requirement) for ‘inventive
step’ that is normally a critical part of a patent application, the
UNCTAD intellectual property team explained to <em>Intellectual Property
Watch</em>. </p>
<p>Utility model certificates also tend to be registered rather than
examined, making them useful in a system where there are few patent
examiners, they said. These utility models “may provide the most
important avenue for using IP to support development,” says the IP
policy.</p>
<p>Pharmaceutical products will be exempt from patentability at least
until 2016, to take advantage of the flexibilities in TRIPS for least
developed countries. Research exemptions are also given, to both public
and private sector institutions for both public and commercial use.</p>
<p>Educational institutions and libraries are given exceptions in
copyright to make copies for archiving and teaching purposes. Free
reproduction is also allowed when a work is specifically intended for
translation into an accessible format for visually impaired people. </p>
<p>Even with its new IP law in place, Rwanda plans not to build its
examination capacity but rather to join the African Regional
Intellectual Property Organization (ARIPO) and make use of its
examination, according to the policy document. </p>
<p>The new policy also reflects thought on how best to incentivise
technology transfer in a least developed country context. Low-income
countries “are simply not players in the transfer of technology by
licensing,” says the policy, citing a statistic that 96.7 percent of
royalty flows related to technology licensing happen in high-income
countries, with the remainder happening mostly in middle income
countries.</p>
<p>Foreign direct investment is therefore potentially a better way for
technology to move into low income countries, the policy says. But here,
too, investments have been declining in recent years in Sub-Saharan
Africa, the policy says. Rwanda intends to be “at the vanguard of
reversing this trend and ensuring that together with FDI comes
technology.”</p>
<p>On IP enforcement, the new policy takes seriously three principles
from TRIPS: that IP rights are private and it is not the responsibility
of the state to enforce them (but rather to provide the means through
which private entities may do so); that national differences should be
accounted for in implementing TRIPS; and that treaties should be
interpreted in a way that is loyal to their object and purpose. In the
case of TRIPS, this purpose and objective is to “contribute to
technological innovation [and] the transfer and dissemination of
technology.”</p>
<p>Enforcement measures, says the policy, “applied reasonably and in a
balanced way, have benefits for local inventors, innovators and creative
communities.” </p>