Rethinking Ownership of Intellectual Property Developed from Publicly Financed R&D: The Case for Indigenous Knowledge Holders

• Pages: 1-14
• Author: Vuyisile Hobololo
• Date: 24 May 2019
• Citation: (2015) IPLJ 1
• Published date: 24 May 2019

RETHINKING OWNERSHIP OF

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

DEVELOPED FROM PUBLICLY-

FINANCED R&D: THE CASE FOR

INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE

HOLDERS

 

PhD candidate, Olive r Schreiner School of Law, University o f the Witwatersrand

  

          

     

importance i n driving in novation within a knowledge-based economy.1

This model emphasises the nee d for these players to interact, collabor ate,

co-operate, com municate and function syne rgistically in order to successfully

promote national innovation. However, the equally impor tant role of society,

of which indigenous knowledge (IK) holders are a cr ucial part, was for a long

time overlooked and has only recently been recognised by proponents of the

quadr uple-heli xmodel.2

Since the mid 1990s, when the triple-heli x model of innovation was

proposed, the world has seen incr easing levels of co-operation and st rengthened

interaction bet ween industry and academ ia, especially in developed countries.

The enactment of the United St ates of America’s Bayh-Dole Act of 1980 shifted

the right to own intellect ual propert y (IP), developed from federally-funded

research and development (R&D), from the government to publicly-funded

R&D institutions. T his reinforced the need for academia to strengt hen links

  

1 H Etzkowitz ‘The Triple Hel ix - University-i ndustry-gover nment relat ions: A laborator y for

knowledge-ba sed economic develop ment’ (1995) 141 EASST Review 14-19; H Etzkowitz & L

Leydesdorff ‘Em ergence of a Triple Helix of university-in dustry-government relat ions’ (1996)

23(5) Sc ience and Public Poli cy 279–286; H Etzkowitz & L L eydesdorff ‘T he dynamics of

innovation: f rom National Systems of In novation and “Mode 2” to a Triple Helix of un iversity-

industr y-government’ (2000) 29(2) Researc h Policy 109–12 3.

2 EG Carayan nis & DFG Campbell ‘“ Mode 3” and “Quad ruple Helix”: Toward a 21st centur y

fractal i nnovation ecos ystem’ (2009) 46(4) Internati onal Journal of Techn ology Manageme nt

201–234; EG Carayannis & DFG Ca mpbell ‘Triple Helix, Q uadruple Hel ix and Quint uple

Helix and how do knowle dge, innovation and the env ironment relate to ea ch other? A proposed

framework for a t rans-dis ciplinary a nalysis of susta inable development an d social ecology’

(2010) 1(1) Int ernational Jour nal of Social Ecology a nd Sustainable Dev elopment 41– 69.

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(2015) IPLJ 1

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