Assessment on the Status, Challenges and Prospects of Agricultural Technologies Intellectual Property Protection in Ethiopia

Abstract

Intellectual property right (IPR) is a broad term which describes
the protections granted to the creators of IP, and includes;
trademarks, copy right, patents, industrial designs, plant breeder’s
right and in some jurisdictions trade secrets. The objective of this
review is to show the status, challenges, and opportunities for
agricultural technologies intellectual protection in the Ethiopian
intellectual property regime. There are many agricultural
technologies that have the potential to be protected by intellectual
property. The results of this review article shows that there are
several challenges for the protection of agricultural technologies
IPR, including lack of awareness on the concept of IP, lack of
clear policy direction for the protection of plant varieties, absence
of IP assets creation mechanism, low level of institutional linkage
among stakeholders, agricultural IPRs are complex in nature,
poor organizational structure to register, and lack of experienced
and well-qualified IP officials. But there are also prospects for
agricultural technologies IPR protection. Some legal frameworks
are in the process of revision, an independent authority for the
agriculture sector has established, the Ministry of Agriculture has
prepared the draft regulation for PBRs proclamation, amendment
of the agricultural and rural development policy has in the process, and the country’s WTO accession process shows some
improvement. In conclusion, the status of IP protection for
agricultural technologies has not been well-developed and the
registration of agricultural technologies is still null.