Intellectual property rights to be protected.

Local innovators must be breathing a sigh of relief after the latest pronouncement by government that it is working on protecting intellectual property rights. In his 2020 national budget, the finance minister Professor Mthuli Ncube stated that government was aware of how big companies often take advantage of small businesses and steal their ideas when approached for help.

He said government is in the process if capacitating the respective institutions mandated to protect patent innovative products including trademark and copyrights. Very often, you hear people crying foul after big companies steal their ideas for new products because they lack financial back up. Professor Mthuli Ncube remarked,” Innovation, which is intergral for growth and better job creation is lacking protection and hence suppressed in its infancy”.

At one point a certain individual claimed that Econet had stolen the Sasai idea from him. Likewise, several people have come forward claiming that some prominent companies have been capitalising on their ideas