South Africa wants more institutions to access its IP fund

South Africa’s National Intellectual Property Management Office (NIPMO) plans to review the rules for accessing its funding, which is designed to encourage institutions to protect their inventions.

Kerry Faul, the director of regulatory and compliance at NIPMO, said the rules, which will be reviewed in 2013, are not fulfilling their objective of encouraging researchers to patent their work. The rules for accessing the funding may be discouraging rather than encouraging intellectual property protection, she said.