Indigenous knowledge, intellectual property and grassroots innovation in South Africa

Abstract

This study seeks to investigate the relationship that Intellectual property (IP) laws and policies have with grassroots innovation, and how indigenous knowledge is transferred in the innovation process. With the current changes in the IP landscape, no matter how the policies or legislations are drafted, their effectiveness comes down to how much they promote or inhibit indigenous innovation. The literature suggests that knowledge transfer and diffusion are discouraged in developing countries by the enactment of tighter IP laws that tend to negatively impact grassroots innovation. Tailoring the laws to suit the South African context, which has a serious need of addressing grassroots, is therefore, one of the possible answers to this dilemma. A robust and diligent way of understanding the impact of these policies and legislation in pursuit of grassroots innovation will be used to lay out some of the ways in which such research can be carried out, the appropriate population and sample, and how the data is analysed to eventually ascertain the validity and transferability of the study. The National Systems of Innovation framework was used to look into how indigenous knowledge systems get assimilated to mainstream technological systems, with domestication eventually taking place as these knowledge systems move from the informal sector to the formal sector. Key findings reveal a huge gap in knowledge transfer among grassroots innovators, as many lack a basic understanding of IP systems. Furthermore, access is a major stumbling block amongst the innovators as resources are scarce for them.