Background

The Education and Outreach Programme, which was launched in March 1995, is one of the measures the Institute initiated to assist it to implement three of its four core functions, namely: (1) provide to the public industrial property information for technological and economic development; (2) promote inventiveness and innovativeness in Kenya; and (3) organize and conduct training, competitions and awards relating to industrial property matters.

Hon. Moses Kuria (Centre), the Cabinet Secretary, Ministry of Trade, Investments and Industry, listens to Mr. John Onyango (Right),  Managing Director, Kenya Industrial Property Institute (KIPI) explaining how the Institute is facilitating the Government’s manufacturing agenda when he toured its Stand during the Changamka Shopping Festival at the Kenyatta International Convention Centre (KICC), Nairobi. Looking on is Mr. Rajan Shah (2nd Right), the Chairman, and Pankaj Bedi (Left), Board Director, respectively of Kenya Association of Manufacturers (KAM), the Festival’s organisers.

The outreach activities are crucial because they will enable the Institute to tackle the low awareness, among the general public, including in the crucial Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise (MSME) sector on matters industrial property (IP) and how to utilize the IP system for industrial, technological and economic development. Furthermore, the general public is largely unaware of the fact that protection is given for a limited period only, after strict conditions are met, and that, once the protection ends, the invention becomes available and accessible in the public domain.