The Open AIR Project – Exploring the Role of Intellectual Property in Open Development

The Open A.I.R. project – African innovation research and training on the role of intellectual property in open development – is helping African innovators, creators and entrepreneurs turn knowledge into concrete practices that have the potential to transform economies and drive human development forward. It is investing  between 2011 and 2014 into a pan-­‐African research and capacity-­‐building network. Funded by Canada’s IDRC and Germany’s GIZ, the network is administered from the University of Cape Town, South Africa, with additional hubs in West, East and North Africa. Its experts are working in a dozen different counties throughout the continent, in collaboration with partners in Brazil, India, Canada, Switzerland and elsewhere.

The 21st Century has ushered in new modes of innovation and creation based on collaboration among interconnected networks of people, knowledge and resources. But research and capacity building around IP systems have not kept pace with these trends. Polarised views on how IP facilitates or restricts innovation and creativity persist because there is little empirical research on this topic. Open A.I.R. will address this gap by objectively exploring ways in which the African intellectual property systems that govern knowledge can work better as tools for open innovation and collaborative creativity, and then training key public and private sector actors to use these new insights effectively.

The research involves diverse but interconnected case studies to understand the current reality in several thematic areas, and foresight-­‐driven scenario building to acknowledge and prepare for the inevitable uncertainties of the future. Outreach and training activities include seminars and workshops, an emerging leaders fellowship program and a development-­‐oriented intensive course curriculum. Through these activities, the Open A.I.R. project will raise problem awareness and facilitate critical policy engagement, change discourse and behaviour to facilitate collaboration and reduce bottlenecks, empower a networked, epistemic IP community in Africa, and reconfigure IP-­‐related valuation metrics, capital and power structures.

For more information, please contact:

Dr. Tobias Schonwetter (UCT, Principal Investigator): Tobias.Schonwetter@uct.ac.za

Prof. Jeremy de Beer (uOttawa, Principal Investigator):  Jeremy.deBeer@uottawa.ca

Ms. Nan Warner (UCT, Project Manager): nan.warner1@gmail.com

Creative Commons Seminar on 26 October 2011

Copyright law aims to strike a fair balance between the interests of rights holders and users of copyright protected materials. In the digital age, however, this delicate balance is under threat. Digital technologies facilitate unprecedented access to information but also allow for widespread copyright infringement. In the past, law and policymakers responded to these challenges chiefly by continuously strengthening copyright protection and focussing on stricter enforcement of copyright laws. In recent years, however, this approach has increasingly been called into question as it often disregards legitimate user interests in accessing copyrighted materials, e.g. in the educational arena. Also, a growing number of rights holders perceives copyright as a potential stumbling block for the widest-possible dissemination of their materials. While building upon copyright law, Creative Commons licences are a modern approach to balancing the rights of the creator and public access. These free licences allow rights holders to determine more flexibly under what conditions they want to distribute their materials. It is for these reasons that UCT’s recently approved new Intellectual Property Policy expressly supports the publication of materials under Creative Commons licences to promote the sharing of knowledge and the creation of Open Educational Resources (OERs). This Creative Commons Seminar – taking place at UCT’s Research Contracts and IP Services offices between 13h00 and 14h00 and presented by Creative Commons’ legal lead and IP Unit member Dr. Tobias Schonwetter – provides you with an opportunity to gain a greater understanding of the Creative Commons approach to copyright licensing.

The full invitation can be accessed here.

Seminar: “Traditional knowledge, intellectual property rights, power and benefit sharing: case studies/evidence from Pelargonium, Rooibos and Hoodia”

On 26 August 2011, the Law, Race & Gender Unit’s Rural Women Action Project will host a lunch time seminar on “Traditional knowledge, intellectual property rights, power and benefit sharing: case studies/ evidence from Pelargonium, Rooibos and Hoodia”.

The seminar will consider recent cases in relation to compliance with South African law and international law and best-practice on bio-prospecting and benefit sharing. The speakers – Gino Cocchiaro from Natural Justice and Mariam Mayet from the African Centre for Biosafety – will also pay attention to the prospects of testing the scope of new bio-prospecting laws in particular testing the legality of Bio-permits being issued by the Eastern Cape government that can be seen as circumventing national legislation. Other areas of law that require litigation concern how to decide how to compensate a community when a commercial product is harvested from their community without much benefit to them particularly if the community is a poor and marginalised located in the poorest areas of South Africa. This discussion will open the door to a consideration of developing living customary law in concord with the Constitution as a basis to challenge international trade law [including copyright and patent law] that fails to recognise and protect the rights of rural people directly as distinct from officially recognised traditional governance structures which are not necessarily or always the given or legitimate representatives of the interests of rural people.

Date: Friday 26 August 2011

Time: 12h30 – 14h00

Venue: Smit Marine Seminar Room, Kramer Law School, Middle Campus, University of Cape Town

 

Creative Commons – The Power of Open

 The Power of Open: Stories of creators sharing knowledge, art, & data using Creative Commons Released a couple weeks ago, The Power of Open demonstrates the impact of Creative Commons through stories of successful use of our tools by artists, educators, scientists, and institutions of all types. The Power of Open is available for free download at http://thepowerofopen.org under CC BY. It is available in several languages, with more translated versions to come, and you can also order hard copies from Lulu. We hope that it inspires you to examine and embrace the practice of open licensing so that your contributions to the global intellectual commons can provide their greatest benefit to all people.

Open AIR project – fellowship opportunity

The Open African Innovation Research and Training (Open AIR) initiative on the role of intellectual property (IP) in open development invites applications for a three- or six-month Fellowship to live in Cape Town, South Africa, and work on Open AIR research, outreach and training activities. Primary responsibilities will include conducting research on a case study within one or more of the project’s thematic areas, contributing to the development of outreach strategies and training initiatives, and helping to solidify and grow Open AIR’s pan-African network. The Fellow will interact closely with project leaders and affiliated researchers at the Intellectual Property Law and Policy Research Unit at the University of Cape Town (UCT).

Open AIR Fellowship Opportunity

Project Manager: Open AIR project

The Intellectual Property Law and Policy Research Unit, in the University of Cape Town (UCT) Faculty of Law, is seeking a Project Manager to serve on a 30-month (2.5-year) fixed-term contract in managing the Open AIR international research and training project on the role of intellectual property in open development.

Open AIR project – call for case studies

The Open AIR research and training project on the role of IP in open development is inviting preliminary proposals for research case studies in the area of IP, open innovation and collaborative creativity in Africa.

Open AIR’s central aim is to investigate how intellectual property regimes can be harnessed in Africa to facilitate innovation through collaboration and through making processes more participatory, making knowledge more accessible, and making benefits shared more widely. The project is a three-year initiative based at the UCT IP Law and Policy Research Unit, with implementation support from the University of Ottawa Centre for Law, Technology and Society. Supported by Canada’s IDRC and Germany’s BMZ, Open AIR will invest in pan-African research, networking, capacity-building and policy engagement. Open AIR seeks to build on the success of the earlier African Copyright and Access to Knowledge (ACA2K) project, which was based at the Wits University LINK Centre.

Open AIR’s case studies are required to fit within one of the six project themes:

• Copyrights: Empowering Collaborators in Creative Industries
• Patents: Open Innovation for Cleaner Energy Technologies
• Trademarks: Collective Agricultural Branding Strategies
• Cross-Cutting Theme: Implementing the WIPO Development Agenda
• Cross-Cutting Theme: The Traditional Knowledge Commons
• Cross-Cutting Theme: Sharing the Benefits of Publicly Funded Research

The deadline for proposals is 1 April 2011.

Case studies selected for the project will be carried out between July 2011 and April 2012, with draft reports presented at a mid-project workshop in early 2012.

Open AIR Call for Case Studies

Open AIR Project Summary

For more information contact Dr. Tobias Schonwetter at: