Greater awareness of the existence of open access information resources for innovation and making the information easily accessible and relevant to developing country users could help spur innovation in these countries, according to top technical assistance providers and local innovators. ...
Researchers and innovators in developed countries seeking authoritative information on how to solve a particular technical problem or develop a new product generally turn either to scientific journals or patent information. ...
Gakuru Muchemi, a senior lecturer at the Department of Electrical and Information Engineering of the University of Nairobi School of Engineering, noted in an interview that “the use of patent disclosure information either as a research tool or teaching aid in our institutions of learning and research still remains unused or underutilised.”
Muchemi, who has developed a Swahili text-to-speech system, attributed this to general unawareness that certain patent databases can be accessed online free of charge. “Where there is awareness of the potential of patent information, there is a general misconception that they are all provided on a commercial basis which discourages researchers and students from seeking them out,” he added. ...
All of the young innovators interviewed by Intellectual Property Watch were not aware of the existence of open access patent databases that could be used to draw information to either develop new products or improve on their innovations.
Both the IOI and WIPO indicated very modest use of their patent information from Africa by reviewing African internet protocol addresses accessing the databases.
Muchemi, the professor from University of Nairobi, said awareness may increase usage. [The Initiative for Open Innovation] has carried out a number of outreach programmes in Africa and also hopes to forge partnerships with African research think-tanks drawn from various African countries ...
According to [the World Intellectual Property Organization's William] Meredith, the WIPO Patentscope [an OA patent database] team’s publicity efforts are largely centred on “increasing its internet presence” and more participation in workshops, conferences and exhibitions. They have an initiative specifically targeting universities, he said. ...
Posted by
Gavin Baker at 10/19/2009 04:10:00 PM.
The open access movement:
Putting peer-reviewed scientific and scholarly literature
on the internet. Making it available free of charge and
free of most copyright and licensing restrictions.
Removing the barriers to serious research.
I recommend the OA tracking project (OATP) as the best way to stay on top of new OA developments. You can read the OATP feed on a blog-like web page or subscribe to it by RSS, email, or Twitter. You can also help build the feed by tagging new developments you encounter.
