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BACKGROUND
In May 2012, the Government of Botswana (GOB) adopted a national intellectual property (IP) development plan: the Botswana IP Development Plan (BIPDP). The document was formulated and adopted as a result of consultations between the GOB and WIPO aimed at developing the most appropriate framework to enable the country to optimize the use of the IP system, with the added benefit of creating an IP conscious and literate society, equipped to harness the IP system as a tool for attaining national development goals.
The adopted BIPDP essentially created the strategy component of the IP governance framework of the country, serving as a roadmap and an action plan for the maximization of the benefits of the tools of the IP system.
The GOB has approached WIPO, by a letter dated November 25, 2016, to assist in developing the governance component of this framework, entailing the formulation of a national IP policy. This part of the IP governance framework of the country would also entail the subsequent integration of the BIPDP and the policy document, the Botswana IP Policy (BIPP) into a single document, to be called the Botswana Intellectual Property Policy and Strategy (BIPPS).
The BIPPS will aim at constituting a framework within which to enhance Botswana’s capacity to create, protect and make strategic use of the IP system as a tool for economic growth and development. It shall seek to ensure that, the IP Office(s), as well as the actual and potential users, generators, (e.g., tertiary institutions, enterprises of all sizes with a special focus on small and medium sized enterprises, business apex organizations like chambers of commerce and industry, agro-food industries, R&D Institutions and copyright owners’ organizations etc.), have the proper know how (i.e., knowledge, skills) and technical capacity to use the IP system for development in line with the country’s national development strategies.
Considering the fact that the BIPDP was dev |