Patent bottlenecks in most undeveloped nations

2012/09/03

Recently, leaders of some countries called on the international community to deliver support to 48 most undeveloped countries in the world to integrate them into the economic globalization and to narrow down the "digital gap" between those countries and prosperous nations. Those 48 world's most undeveloped countries are mainly located in Africa, Asia and the South Pacific.

Economic development in those countries is subjected to their productivity levels. Besides historical reasons, complex backgrounds also result in the slow economic growth. For example, social turbulence drags some countries whose economy has just achieved a little improvement down to an awful level. A nation's economic development depends not only on a long-term and stable political environment, but also on established innovation systems and incentive policies. Among those 48 countries, many of them have no achievements in innovation area, particularly in patent area, one of the most important parts of intellectual property rights.

Most of those 48 countries are members of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) except Solomon Islands, Timor-Leste and Tuvalu. And 31 of them have already had laws and regulations on patent in place. According to statistics released by the WIPO, 60% of those countries have ever filed patent applications, in which 19 nations come from Africa, five from Asia, three from Oceania and one from the Caribbean. Patent applications in 28 countries therein exceed 18,000, of which, only about 900 are filed by local people, accounting for 5% of the total. In three countries, patent applications are all contributed by foreigners.

In terms of intellectual property, those 48 most undeveloped countries create inadequate innovations in the process of economic development, which is proved by the fact that 58% of them have no patent applications and in the remainders, patent applications filed by foreigners are much more than those by local people. Take Tanzania for example. It received 1,198 patent applications from 1955 to 1998, but only one of them was filed by Tanzanian creators. Similar situation occurs among the group. Besides this, unstable and intermittent patent applications are another common characteristic.

Social turbulence is another main reason which hinders the economic development and innovative creations. Somalia is the typical example of this kind. With the support of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund before 1991, the economy in the nation was well on track. From 1968 to 1985, a total of 161 patent applications were filed and in 1968 alone, patent applications amounted to 78, although, with only five were submitted by local people. While after the fall of the Siad regime in 1991, the country falls in chaos with the suspension of education and economy. Countries such as Afghanistan and Haiti also underwent a similar awkward predicament.

The last but not the least reason for low IP levels in those countries is the unenlightened nationals, which is also an indicator of valuing a nation's economic development degree. In Haiti, 57% of grown-ups in cities received no education at all, and the figure is high up to 85% in its rural areas, while the illiteracy rate reaches 40% in Rwanda and 15% in South Sudan.

In view of the listed reasons obstructing patent development, those countries yearning for great economic improvement are recommended to firstly establish a long-term and stable social environment which could attract more foreign investors, secondly exert unremitted efforts to develop education and thirdly explore creations in their unique industries.

(Source: IPR in China)