Information Society Watch

September 24, 2007, East African Business Week

This article builds a case in favour of lax Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) laws for promoting innovations in ICTs, leading to development in the South. Lax IPRs in the context of ICTs refer to adoption of IP regimes that promote technological development and integrate ICT into an indigenous development programme to meet existing technological challenges. It is well established that IP laws, especially WTO-TRIPS, promoted by developed nations because of the purpoted innovations that they bring, have not had the desired effect on the economies of developing nations. To the contrary, these laws have further impoverished countries in the South.The same is true for IPRs when extended to ICTs (the adoption of which are extremely important to support a development regime which is socially driven). The author buttresses his case for lax IP laws by pointing out that countries like the United States prevented the protection of foreign works for the first century of its existence, while countries like China and Burma have also adopted lax IPR laws.

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