The Intellectual Property System as a Catalyst for Socio-Economic Development for Middle Income Countries: Lessons from South Africa

摘要

For low and middle-income countries increasing their R&D and technological base, international technology transfer could be an effective tool to accelerate their development. This article looks at South Africa's patent system and development aspirations as set out in the National Development Plan (Vision 2030), and discusses these within the context of the changes in the macroeconomic environment as well as intellectual property landscape over the period 1996-2015. Based on South Africa's technological capabilities as reflected in patent data, this article proposes a number of interventions that could ensure that the intellectual property system becomes a catalyst for fostering South Africa's development goals. This article places specific emphasis on transfer of technology, including the adaptation of foreign developed intellectual property to supplement South Africa's new technological capabilities in a few technological areas, in order to build new industries and catalyse development. This article advocates that the South African Government should support genuine innovation and the import of important technologies with a range of incentives to propel the private sector in order to realise the country's developmental objective. The case of South Africa could be particularly useful for low and other middle-income countries on how to use the intellectual property system for their socio-economic development.