PREAMBLE
The University of Nairobi (UoN) has the largest concentration of scholars and researchers in the country and is the centre for Intellectual life, a locus of research activity extending the boundaries of knowledge, a resource for professional development and a key player in the growing global network of scholarship. The University strives to discover practical uses for theoretical knowledge and to speed up the transmission of information to the Kenyan nation and the world. In fostering research and its practical application the University will continue to be a catalyst for positive intellectual, social, cultural and technological change. The radical and unstoppable scientific and technological advances of the latter part of the 20th century have ushered in daunting challenges in the appropriation and use of products of human intellect.
In particular, there are concerns for the public interest in new products and processes resulting from discoveries or inventions made by researchers in connection with and related to their research activities. Moreover the growing application and use of communications media, educational technology, and computer programs in research
raise new and complex problems relating to the proper and equitable distribution of rewards and obligations. The challenge to find fair and equitable ways and means to distribute and reward efforts among the different stakeholders, that is, the inventors or authors, the institution for which they work, outside sponsors and, more important today, the community in which the work is conducted, is real indeed.
Accordingly, research institutions have undergone a profound transition in their attitudes toward and interactions with a variety of external organizations and actors. Policies concerning intellectual property rights, conflicts of interest, and patent, license agreements, to name but a few, have begun to consume enormous amounts of time and thought in these institutions. For the UoN, as for other institutions, the need and concern to properly manage its intellectual property.
Article 1: Objectives
a) To protect the rights of the University, its innovators, inventors, breeders, research sponsors and the public;
b) To eliminate the infringement, improper exploitation and abuse of the intellectual property assets belonging to the University and/ or its customers;
c) To optimize the environment and incentives for research and for the creation of new knowledge;
d) To promote linkages with industry and stimulate research through developing and utilizing novel technologies and creative works for commercialization;
e) To promote creativity and innovation; and
f) To ensure fair and equitable distribution of all benefits accruing from all innovations, inventions and breeding activities.
You can download the University of Nairobi Intellectual Property Policy here.
