American Bar Association Panel on African Legal Integration
May 2, 2007
The Fairmont Hotel, Washington DC

IIPI's Molly Torsen participated in a panel discussion exploring the premise that regional integration is positively correlated with increased rule of law and economic growth in Africa.  Molly focused her presentation and participation on Africa's intellectual property institutions, the African Regional Industrial Property Organization (ARIPO, serving mostly Anglophone countries) and the Organisation Africaine de la Propriété Intellectuelle (OAPI, serving Francophone countries).  She also highlighted the African Union's recently-introduced idea for a Pan African Intellectual Property Organization (PAIPO) which has been endorsed by UNESCO.

Powerpoint Presentation (101 KB)
 

Conference on Establishing a National Copyright Society and Strengthening the Copyright Industries
December 11-13, 2006
Gaborone International Conference Center
Gaborone, Botswana

Music and other forms of culture not only provide enjoyment and entertainment, but also can serve as the foundation of culture based industries.  However, such industries can only form if those who partake in them understand their intellectual property rights in the works they create and how to use these rights in a business setting.  This conference was designed to provide foundational training in intellectual property rights and business practices to local musicians and others involved in the cultural industries.  Additionally, IIPI released the report Implementing the Copyright Society Provisions of Botswana’s New Copyright Act during the conference. This report provides a roadmap for creating a national collecting society to the Batswana people.

Agenda and Conference Materials
IIPI Report: Implementing the Copyright Society Provisions of Botswana’s New Copyright Act
Press Release

Workshop on National Innovation Policy and Technology Transfer
November 20-21, 2006
Grand Palm Hotel
Gaborone, Botswana

The International Intellectual Property Institute in conjunction with the Botswana Ministry of Communication, Science & Technology and the Southern African Research & Innovation Management Association, arranged a two-day conference designed to strengthen the national innovation policy of Botswana.  This conference focused on how “technology transfer,” the process of transferring new technologies invented at universities and government-funded research laboratories to the private sector, can be a key ingredient to bolstering Botswana’s regional and global competitiveness.  Speakers at the conference include representatives from leading academic institutions, federally-funded laboratories, multilateral development agencies and the private sector. 

Agenda, Speaker Biographies and Conference Materials
Press Release

Namibia Intellectual Property Conference - Supporting Culture Based Industries
November 15-17, 2006
Windhoek Country Club
Windhoek, Namibia

Handicrafts and art that are made by people with traditional materials, using traditional techniques, are a highly prized commodity in the international marketplace.  The marketplace, however, is flooded with counterfeit products that mislead consumers as to their origin and negatively impact traditional works both economically and ethically.  Individuals and communities who produce these goods may be missing a key component of their prospective financial success if they are not employing an appropriate menu of intellectual property laws and practices for their benefit.  This conference will address the intellectual property laws and issues that confront artists and small business owners who would like to produce and sell their traditional goods both locally and internationally.

Agenda, Speaker Biographies and Conference Materials
Press Release

Music Piracy Workshop
October 2-4, 2006
IIPI Headquarters
Washington DC

Pirated CDs and cassettes is a major problem in many developing countries.  While international artists must suffer lost sales, the pirated of music products is especially harmful to local artists struggling to make a living.   This "train the trainer" workshop focused on educating participants from Southern Africa on such things as identifying pirate CDs and the relevance of different policy options intended to combat the piracy of CDs and cassettes.  

Agenda and Workshop Materials
Press Release

Botswana Intellectual Property Conference - Making IP Work for Development
June 26-29, 2006
Grand Palm Hotel
Gaborone, Botswana

Botswana has in recent years made progress towards building a legal infrastructure conducive to capitalizing on the intellectual property generated by its citizens.  This includes the passage of an updated Industrial Property Act in 1996 and an updated Copyright Act in 2000. Nevertheless, little public attention has focused on the role of intellectual property in building local businesses.  This conference was intended to provide a comprehensive discussion of intellectual property law and policy issues to a broad audience.  

Agenda
Press Release

West Africa and Intellectual Property: Policy Priorities to Foster Economic Growth, Public Health and Culture
December 6-8, 2004
Sofitel Teranga Dakar
Dakar, Senegal

Many West African countries do not have strong intellectual property regimes and are having difficulty in enforcing intellectual property rights. Combating piracy and counterfeiting is a major problem for these countries. Not only does piracy and counterfeiting drastically reduce the economic potential of local intellectual property-based industries, but it also can have serious public health and safety impacts, when for instance pharmaceutical products are counterfeited. This conference will bring together policymakers, legal professionals and the public health community to discuss the rule of law in intellectual property, intellectual property public health and safety, technology commercialization and the use of intellectual property to promote culture based industries.

Agenda
Press Release

IIPI Report:  South African University Technology Transfer: A Comparative Analysis
By:  Eric Garduño
January 2004

This report discusses how “technology transfer,” the process of transferring new technologies invented at universities and other public research organizations to the private sector, can be a key ingredient to strengthening South Africa’s industry and global competitiveness. The report urges the South African government and universities to clarify intellectual property ownership rights through policy changes, provide more services for the transfer of technology, encourage a stronger entrepreneurial spirit among South African university inventors and provide additional incentive for venture capital and other private investors to support university-based technology start-up companies. The study compares the technology transfer process in the United States and other countries to efforts being made in South Africa and outlines seven steps to prevent potentially economically useful research done in South African universities from slipping into an “innovation chasm.”

Report (PDF, 300k)
Press Release

Treading an Independent Course for Protecting Traditional Knowledge
by Lee Gillespie-White & Eric Garduño
April 2002

Taking a traditional natural product of the Sans Tribe, South Africa's Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) developed an effective hunger suppression supplement.  However, what initially was a case of bio-piracy was converted into a shinning example of equitable benefit sharing with indigenous people.

View Article (99 KB)

Article:  Do Patents for Antiretroviral Drugs Constrain Access to AIDS Treatment in Africa?
By:  Lee Gillespie-White and Amir Attaran
October 17, 2001

Published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) and co-authored by IIPI's Lee Gillespie-White and Dr. Amir Attaran of Harvard's Center for International Development, this article illustrates the fact that patent protection does not act as a barrier to access to HIV/AIDS pharmaceuticals.

Article (PDF, 512KB)
Press Release

Briefing to Congress on the HIV/AIDS Pandemic
July 20, 2001
Washington, DC

The International Intellectual Property Institute has been involved in research and discussion of the HIV/AIDS issue since its founding in 1998. In December 2000, IIPI published Patent Protection and Access to HIV/AIDS Pharmaceuticals in sub-Saharan Africa, a first-of-its-kind report examining the patent status of HIV/AIDS treatments in all countries of sub-Saharan Africa . As part of its efforts to promote access to HIV/AIDS medications to people in developing countries, IIPI worked in conjunction with the Congressional Economic Leadership Institute (CELI), to create a briefing for Members of Congress and Congressional staff concerning the role of the U.S. government in the HIV/AIDS pandemic. The half-day program was co-chaired by Congressmen Jim Kolbe (R-AZ) and Jim McDermott (D-WA) and featured several renowned experts on the crisis. Four separate panels examined the status of the crisis, the state of related science, approaches to intervention and prevention, care and treatment, and discussed how the resources and leadership of the U.S. government can be used most effectively.

Agenda, Biographies and Materials
Press Release

IIPI Report:  Patent Protection and Access to HIV/AIDS Pharmaceuticals in Sub-Saharan Africa
By:  Lee Gillespie-White, Paul Salmon
December 2000

This groundbreaking report investigated the patent status of HIV/AIDS medications in Sub-Saharan Africa. While patents, and intellectual property in general, are often cited as barriers to people receiving medications, this report and subsequent research shows that the patent status of medications is rarely an issue, and that financing and poor infrastructure are the primary impediments to people receiving the necessary drugs.

Report (PDF, 8.7MB)
Press Release