Examining the Legal Regime Governing Commercialization of Patents, Copyrights and Trademarks in Ethiopia

Abstract

In the contemporary knowledge based economy, the contribution of intellectual property to economic growth and business enterprise value, especially in developed countries is increasing. Though the share of intellectual property rights to the country’s economic growth is not paramount as of today, the Ethiopian intellectual property system has prescribed and protected patent, copyright and trademark. Assignment, securitization and licensing are the usual legal vehicles to commercialize intellectual property. There are rules that meant to govern such vehicles in the existing Ethiopian laws. The paper critically examines the adequacy of the existing rules on assignment, licensing and securitization of intellectual property rights in Ethiopia. On the basis of the investigations, it concludes that the rules on commercialization of intellectual property rights in Ethiopia are inadequate in terms of existence, clarity or tenability.

Keywords: commercialization, intellectual property, patents, copyrights, trademarks, assignment, licensing, securitization.