ZIMBABWE

Universities urged to use intellectual property laws

Zimbabwe’s institutions of higher learning and research have been challenged to protect their inventions and research under intellectual property laws, writes Whinsley Masara for the Chronicle.

Speaking during an Intellectual Property Roving Seminar for Academic and Research Institutions in Bulawayo last week, the director general of the African Regional Intellectual Property Organisation (ARIPO), Fernando Dos Santos, urged Zimbabwean universities to take up the use of the ARIPO system like most foreign universities are doing.

The two-day seminar was held at the National University of Science and Technology under the theme “Fostering Creativity and Innovation for Economic Growth and Development in Arica”. Dos Santos said the most active institution in Zimbabwe is the Harare Institute of Technology which has filed the highest number of applications at ARIPO, with six patents and seven utility models.
Full report on the Chronicle site