Burkina Faso weighs teaching intellectual property in schools
The national IP centre's workshop in Ouagadougou discussed adding the subject to general, technical, professional and university curricula.
The permanent secretariat of Burkina Faso's National Intellectual Property Centre, SP-CNPI, held a workshop in Ouagadougou on Wednesday on putting intellectual property into school and university programmes. The meeting, in the video room of the PSUT building at Joseph-Ki-Zerbo University, aimed to encourage creativity and innovation across the country.
Kohio Lodouba, head of prospective, training and cooperation, spoke for the centre's permanent secretary and said the aim was to build a culture of intellectual property. He said schools are an effective way to reach a wide public. The secretariat helps creators protect their works with the African Intellectual Property Organisation, OAPI, which gives the owner the exclusive right to authorise or forbid use.
Participants included teachers, researchers and education stakeholders. Lodouba also said national law recognises only a natural person as the author of a work, which raises open questions for artificial intelligence. The workshop is part of a specific activity programme of the secretariat validated by OAPI.