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South Africa should do more to protect IP

Dr Val Munsami, deputy director general for research, development and innovation in the department of science and technology told News24.com that South Africa should do more to protect local intellectual property (IP).

20 Sep 2011

Munsami announced that there are plans to change the legislation in order to protect local IP and that the focus area for the department was on protecting publically-funded research from IP theft. The Technology Innovation Act exists to support innovation and control the IP related to publically-funded discoveries, and Munsami feels that the regulations could provide a way to protect intellectual property by establishing the Technology Innovation Agency in order to stimulate innovation and economic growth.

According to Munsami, South Africa was going to face an IP-related challenge with the development of the MeerKAT (Karoo Array Telescope) in the Northern Cape Province, because development is run as an open source project. This means that the country may be open to IP theft. Munsami argued, however, that MeerKAT project innovation would include licensed technologies and that "[y]ou're probably not going to get the solutions you're looking for from an open source platform".

Read the full article on www.news24.com.
View the The Technology Innovation Act (PDF)