AJIC Issue 22, 2018
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- ItemAJIC Issue 22, 2018 - Full Issue (LINK Centre, University of the Witwatersrand (Wits), Johannesburg, 2018-12-07)
- ItemAJIC Issue 22, 2018 - Full Issue - Print-on-Demand Version (LINK Centre, University of the Witwatersrand (Wits), Johannesburg, 2018-12-07)
- ItemEvolution of Africa’s Intellectual Property Treaty Ratification Landscape(LINK Centre, University of the Witwatersrand (Wits), Johannesburg, 2018-12-07) De Beer, Jeremy; Baarbé, Jeremiah; Ncube, CarolineIntellectual property (IP) policy is an important contributor to economic growth and human development. However, international commitments harmonised in IP treaties often exist in tension with local needs for flexibility. This article tracks the adoption of IP treaties in Africa over a 131-year span, from 1884 to 2015, through breaking it down into four periods demarcated by points in time coinciding with key events in African and international IP law: the periods 1884–1935, 1936–1965, 1966–1995, and 1996¬–2015. The article explores relevant historical and legal aspects of each of these four periods, in order to assess and contextualise the evolutions of the IP treaty landscape on the continent. The findings show that treaties now saturate the IP policy space throughout the continent, limiting the ability to locally tailor approaches to knowledge governance.
- ItemNigerian Copyright Reform and Implications for Access to Teaching and Learning Materials (TLMs) in the Digital Age(LINK Centre, University of the Witwatersrand (Wits), Johannesburg, 2018-12-07) Chuma-Okoro, HelenThis article examines the extent to which the provisions of Nigeria’s draft Copyright Bill promote access to teaching and learning materials (TLMs), with such access framed as an important public interest goal. The article highlights the weaknesses in the extant Nigerian copyright statute with regard to TLM access, and examines the extent to which the provisions of the draft Bill would provide improvement. The article concludes that while the draft Bill provides significant improvements in respect of TLM access, it also contains significant weaknesses and gaps which Nigerian lawmakers should seek to address.
- ItemMobile Phone Use by Zimbabwean Smallholder Farmers: A Baseline Study(LINK Centre, University of the Witwatersrand (Wits), Johannesburg, 2018-12-07) Musungwini, SamuelThis article provides findings from a baseline study on mobile phone use by smallholder farmers in Zimbabwe. The study investigated use of mobile phones by 58 farming households in a village in Zimbabwe’s Midlands Province. Via a survey questionnaire and a focus group discussion, the study found that 100% of the surveyed households identified “asymmetry of information” as a challenge they face in their agricultural activities, and 90% cited “absence of market information” as a challenge. Yet at the same time, the study found low levels of household mobile phone usage, with only 50% of households were found to be using mobile telephony in support of a farming activity. The article concludes with a recommendation for how to close this apparent gap between the smallholder farmers’ felt need for increased agricultural information and, at the same time, their lack of use of mobile telephony to access such information.