Outreach. Raising IP awareness in west Africa

• Author: Paulin Edou Edou
• Position: Director General of the African Intellectual Property Organization (OAPI)
• Pages: 19-20

What is your main priority in

raising awareness ab out

intellect ual property (IP) in OAPI

member s tates?

As IP is stil l ra ther an obs cure

and spe ciali zed subj ect in t he

OAPI re gion, one of our main

prioriti es i s to infor m an d edu -

cate our target audie nces about

IP, its role and advant ages. IP i n-

formation is key in this endeav-

or. We can’t do anything with out

it. We are, therefore, working to

improve access to infor mation

about the IP system and how it

can suppor t business and deve l-

opm ent in teres ts. T here is a

great de al to be done to ensure

researchers , acade mics, c ompa-

nies, stud ents, magistrates and

other legal professionals have a

solid under standing of the im-

portanc e of IP as a tool for eco-

nomic de velopment. The OA PI

Action Plan, which covers 2 007-

2012 and which I launc hed in

2007, puts a great deal of em-

phasis on i nformation and effe c-

tive com munication.

Why is IP awarenes s important

in the OAPI region ?

IP i s an e ssen tial elem ent i n

promoting econo mic develop -

ment. Today, the count ries with

the stro nges t eco nomic per -

formance a re knowledge-b ased.

They use the IP system to add

value to information, know-

ledge a nd ideas a nd to trans -

form thes e intangibles into con-

crete economic asse ts. IP and

eco nomic growt h are c lose ly

int ertw ined in to day’s highl y

competiti ve globa lized eco no-

my. The countries in the OAPI re-

gion need to know mo re about

IP in order to us e it to promo te

economic developme nt. Used

effectivel y and str ategically, IP

has the potentia l to genera te

significan t social, economic a nd

cultural benefits – invento rs and

creators can earn a living, com-

panies c an advance bu siness in-

terests, re searchers can l everage

results and governments can

promote e conomic well-b eing.

How is OAPI reachi ng out to its

target a udiences?

The OAPI Media In itiative allow s

us t o com munic ate w ith ou r

target au diences. The media –

televisio n and radio networ ks,

ne wsp aper s, m aga zin es, the

Int erne t and jou rnal ists – a re

vital p artners in helping us to

communica te the message of IP.

Rai sing IP aw arene ss amo ng

journalis ts – how I P works, why

it is important – is another im-

por tant a spec t of t he OA PI

Media Initia tive. Th at i s why, in

cooperati on with WIP O, we reg-

ularly orga nize training semina rs

on IP for journa lists. This helps

them to better under stand IP

and its re levance to econ omic

developme nt. Thanks to these

se mi na rs – t hr ee so f ar : i n

Yaoundé (2008), Libreville (2009)

and B razzaville (2010) – a grow-

ing number of jo urnalists are

able t o report effectively on the

different as pects of the IP s ys-

tem. The training courses also

enable jour nalists to ask politi-

cia ns and IP spe cial ists m ore

relevant and probing IP-rel ated

questions.

With WIPO’s s upport, OAPI also

launch ed in Sep tember 2010 a

new website. This upgraded, user-

frie ndly site o ffers acce ss to a

wide range of IP-related informa-

tion and helps fill the IP informa-

tion gap in OAPI member states.

Is there any evide nce that yo ur

outreach efforts are paying of f?

Yes, we are seeing a growing

number of radio and televisio n

pr og ra ms a nd ne ws pa per

reports ab out IP in the region,

and m ore interv iews of political

figures deali ng with IP-re lated

questions. In Côte d’Ivoire, IP

features regu larly in the local

press; in B enin, there’s a dedicat-

ed IP website run by a journal ist

trained by us ; and in Mali and

Cameroon, IP-related pro grams

and doc umentaries f requently

air o n national TV netwo rks and

are covere d in the wr itten press.

19

In this article, t he Director General of the A frican Intellectual Property Orga nization (OAPI), Mr. Paulin Edo u

Edou explains how OAPI is reach ing out to members of the public in each of its 16 member states t o raise

awareness about the economic, social and cultural benefits of effective intellectual property (IP) prote ction.

Photo: OAPI

Singers perfoming at an

OAPI outreach event

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RAISING IP

AWARNESS IN WEST

AFRICA

OUTREACH