Innovators often value their creations and their money. However, few of them understand how to appropriately protect these assets.
Many of them are not familiar with the intellectual property laws of their countries which leave them vulnerable to challenges such as piracy, theft and copyright infringement with or without their knowledge.
ResilientAfrica Network (RAN), an innovation incubation hub developed in collaboration with USAID and the Makerere University School of Public Health has taken a step toward tackling these challenges by hosting a one day Legal Café to teach budding and seasoned innovators how to legally protect their innovations.
The Resilient Communities’ Legal Cafe was held at the RAN offices in Kololo on Friday 20th January in collaboration with PULIIDA, an award winning Ugandan Not-for-profit legal start up that offers legal support services to agribusinesses and climate change driven innovations in Uganda.
The key issues discussed were how innovators could exploit the available legal expertise within their communities to protect their innovations.
“Most innovators do not know how to protect their innovations. They are susceptible to foul play from subversive characters that can use their naiveté to steal their innovations,” warned Moses Mugisha, PULIIDA’s founder.
Mugisha also pointed out that there are a variety of available community resources that innovators can use to protect their creations. However, most of them opt for cheap, inexperienced lawyers denying them the advice of experienced legal counsel who could help them avoid a myriad of legal problems.
“Young innovators often find themselves in legal problems because they lack money or the will to consult expert legal counsel. There are available legal instruments such as Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDAs), trademark and copyright laws and confidentiality laws that can protect their innovations. But some are not aware of these resources, but this is what we at PULIIDA want to change,” Mugisha added.
He noted that lawyers can play a key role in protecting innovations, but cautioned lawyers against giving legal advice on problems where they felt overwhelmed.
Innovators in attendance were also able to get expert advice from a panel of lawyers provided by PULIIDA who equipped them with important information on registration of companies, copyright law, using social media and exploiting PULIIDA as a resource to protect their innovations.
With the rise of the internet and other emerging technologies, competition is at all-time high creating a cutthroat environment where ideas and creations can be lost easily, understanding intellectual property is more important than ever for innovators.
