Industrial Property Landscape in Kenya: Facts, figures and trends

Industrial Property Landscape inKenya: Facts, figures and trends

Citation: Scinnovent 2015. Industrial property landscape in Kenya: Facts, trends and figures. Scinnovent. Nairobi, Kenya

Industrial designsUtility

modelsPatents

1990 2014


This report is based on secondary data availed to TheScinnovent Centre by the Kenya Industrial Property

Institute (KIPI).

Industrial property landscape in Kenya: Facts, trendsand figures. Scinnovent. Nairobi, Kenya

© 2015 The Scinnovent Centre

Editing, design and layout—Scinnovent CentrePublishing Services, Nairobi, Kenya.

1914

First patent is filed in Kenya

under the laws of England


Patents andDesignsOrdinanceenacted

IndustrialProperty ActCAP 509enacted

1914

1989Kenya IndustrialProperty Office (KIPO)established

Mandate to examine, grant andregister industrial property rights.

Industrial Property policies and legislation

Patents: 1990- 2013

1994


First patentgranted sinceestablishmentof KIPO

2,388 patents werefiled in the period1990 – 2013

Patents filed in 2013 was 24 times more than those filedin 1990 when Act was enacted

Steady growth......

633 patents had been grantedrepresenting 26.5% of total patentsfiled between 1990 and 2013

By 2013Citation: Scinnovent 2015. Industrial property landscape in Kenya: Facts, trends and figures. Scinnovent. Nairobi, Kenya

for the first time,the patentapplications inKenya exceededthe 100 mark

In 2007,

Channels of application

Gap between national patents andPCT patents granted widened withmajority of the patents grantedbeing PCT patents.

National vs International

51.4% through patent cooperation treaty

(PCT)

48.6% through national patent

applications

73.6% PCT patents26.4% Nationalpatents

2008 to 2013

633 patentsgranted

First PCT patentapplication in 1994

1990-2013


Time taken to grant patents


Timebetween filing date

and grant date

majority of patents took between 2and 3 years to be granted.

GovernmentCompaniesIndividuals

Different types of applicants

More than half (57.58%)of patents

filed by companies

36.07% of these granted

Public research institutesUniversities and other learninginstitutionsVarious forms of partnerships


National patents filed in partnerships

10 types of partnerships:


Partnerships betweenindividuals granted mostpatents

278 patents filed bypartnerships14.4% of these weregranted

Classification of patents granted, byeconomic sector

Most patents granted toagriculture, forestry andfishing

Mining and quarryinggranted the least

31.4%

0.5 %

Based onInternationalPatentsClassificationscheme


Utility models: 1993 to 2013

396 utility models filed 42 grantedIndividuals 50%, Companies 31%, Partnerships 16.6% University and other learninginstitutions - 0Public Research Institutes2.4%

55.8% by individuals17.4% by companies16.9% by partnerships8.6% by universities and other learninginstitutions1.3% by Public Research institutions


Partnerships betweenindividuals/ individualsrecord highest success

Utility models: owners' category


were filed by partnerships Only 7 models were granted tothese partnerships

67 utilitymodels

Period taken to grant utility models


Majority ofutility modelstook 12months andbelow to begranted.

How long does it take to grant a utility model?

Industrial designs: 1991 to April 2014

industrial designs filed between 1991and 20141392

51.3% granted


Industrial designs classification byowners' category

Companiesfiled andgrantedmajority ofindustrialdesigns

82.5%filed onlyPublic research institutes

0.3% of the industrial designs and weregranted none


Industrial designs filed in partnerships


Partnerships betweenindividuals/individualsrecorded highestsuccess

24 industrial designsfiled inpartnerships

Rejected/ Delayed applications


73.5% of 2388 patents filedwere rejected90% of the 396 utilitymodels filed were rejected49% of the 1392 industrialdesigns filed were rejected

High rejection/ delay rate

Several reasons for rejection- patents


Some national patent applications evolved into different IP types:

Most applications NOT granted due to

lack of correspondence between applicant and KIPI

Converted into a utility modelFiled as PCT patents as perapplicants request

Failure to submitrequired feeLack of response toKIPIFailure to meet setcriteriaWithdrawal byapplicant


Reasons for patent applicationrejections/ delay

Reasons for utility models applicationsrejections/delay


Reasons for industrial designsapplications rejections/ delay



This work was carried out with the aid of a grant from theInternational Development Research Centre (IDRC), Ottawa,

CanadaWe give special thanks to the Kenya Industrial Property Institute

(KIPI) for availing all the data used in this study

Acknowledgement

http://www.scinnovent.org/

http://www.scinnovent.org/

Industrial Property Landscape in Kenya: Facts, figures and trends

Technology

scinnovent centreediting

industrial property

mostpatents278 patents

kenyanational patents

trendsand figures

byeconomic sectormost

national patent applications73

pct patents26