South Africa Conference On IP And Innovation

A conference being held in South Africa this week will address the sensitive topic of intellectual property and innovation in the developing country context. On hand will be a top team of developed country experts with a mix of Indian and Chinese specialists.

The Accelerating Intellectual Property and Innovation conference will be held in Cape Town from 18-20 September.

Discussons will include “how to create optimal legal and regulatory frameworks to support the development of new products that can fulfil the needs of a country in a way that maximises access and the potential for success,” according to organisers. It also will tackle how to raise money and attract investment. Participating experts are expected from South Africa, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, China and India as well as the United States, Latin America and Europe.

Among the international speakers are the Chief Judge of the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, Randall R. Rader; James Pooley, deputy director general for innovation and technology at the World Intellectual Property Organization; Teresa Rea, deputy director of the US Patent and Trademark Office; Todd Dickinson, executive director of the American Intellectual Property Law Association (AIPLA); Hans Sauer, deputy general counsel at the Biotechnology Industry Organization; Gordon Myers, chief counsel at the International Finance Corporation, World Bank; Homi R. Khusrokhan, senior advisor for private equity at Tata Capital in India; Jun Ma, director of the Technology Development Office at Tsinghua University in Beijing; and Mahama Ouedraogo, executive secretary of the African Union Science, Technology, Research Commission in Lagos.

The conference website is here: www.acceleratingipsouthafrica.com.