Ensure legal protection for our inventors
Anthony Muthungu with his innovation, the voltoto portable ventilator. The solar powered ventilator is useful for transporting patients with respiratory issues from home to the hospital.
What you need to know:
- Registering a patent ensures that nobody steals an invention by claiming to be its owner.
- Patent protection lasts for 20 years from the date of application and the inventor must pay an annual fee to Kipi to maintain it lest it lapse.
On Mashujaa Day, President Uhuru Kenyatta lauded Roy Alela, an engineering student at the University of Nairobi, for inventing smart gloves that auto-translate sign language into speech.
This is an invention worthy of recognition and protection. The law offers protection by way of patent — an exclusive right over an invention. The invention can be a product or process that provides a new way of doing something or offers a novel technical solution to a problem.
In the case of Alela’s gloves, they translate sign language into speech in a quick and accurate way. That, basically, is a technological solution.
Registering a patent ensures that nobody steals an invention by claiming to be its owner. It also ensures that nobody uses the invention without the true inventor’s consent. Further, the inventor has the exclusive right to prevent others from commercially exploiting the invention.
In other words, patent protection means that the invention cannot be commercially made, used, distributed or sold by others without the inventor’s consent. The inventor has the exclusive right to sell the patent or license its usage rights to a third party.
Industrial application
To get one’s invention legally registered, one starts by filing an application with Kenya Industrial Property Institute (Kipi). If it is successful, Kipi will give one a patent certificate. An application will be successful if the invention has three main features. One, it must be novel; that is, new.
Two, it must have an inventive step. This means that it needs to have a step that is not obvious to a person skilled in the same art. Three, it must have industrial application. This means it can be made or used in any kind of industry.
Patent protection lasts for 20 years from the date of application and the inventor must pay an annual fee to Kipi to maintain it lest it lapse. Patent ensures that you get credit for what you create and protect the financial rights.
Ms Otieno is a communications specialist and lawyer. [email protected].
