OFF PATENTS

Disclaimer: The views expressed are not professional views, but views from a layman. Any corrections from experts are more than welcome.

Shark Tank - One of the few series, which I have come to enjoy. The basis: Pitch your great-idea to the team of multi-billion Venture Capitalists, who in turn put in money towards the business, depending on your idea, pitching skills and the vision that the VC and the "pitcher" have. One of the key things that kept on coming on the episodes is patents. And the great ideas pitched most, if not all, had patents.

Am pretty sure this has to be the thorniest of issues that we as Kenyan innovators suffer from. Why do I say so? A couple of reasons:

a) People have so many good ideas, but then we can't share with the "big boys" in the market, as they will both be snatched and implemented before you even blink your eyes. Why? Financial muscle and proper management structures, which many up-coming entrepreneurs lack.

b) We lack knowledge on how to deal with patents. We are a developing country with a blue-print to vision 2030, which is being implemented in bits and pieces. Doing a quick search on Google, I realize there is a government entity under the ministry of Industrialization, called KIPI (Kenya Industrial Property Institute) .

Its good we have an arm of the government, that deals with patents. A quick flip into their site, which is well done, I go through the patents section. This is where all the jargon begins. They have some basic guidelines ET all of how to get a patent. Problem being when I download the document that shows the patent fees, first, I looked through the figures and understood nothing. Now that doesn't mean that I don't understand how to read numbers or anything, but the way they were presented and structured, it would be hard to for a kawaida mwananchi to understand them. So I quickly went to Hahn and Hahn Inc, Intellectual Property(IP) Practitioners, based in SA, they outline the costs to be around $2100 - $2300. Now that’s one hell of a figure.

Picture this, based on a story the Standard, run on page three of the dailies on Saturday (May,14^th 2011),A young guy with a great invention of a gadget that can cook after getting instructions from a mobile phone (The story run under the title - Student Whose Meal is but a Phone Call away).This is a great thing and good invention to some of us who are busy in the hustle of paper-chasing or what they call the rat race. I doubt this guy knows there is something called patenting of such a great invention, which if produced well under a good watch of Fab Labs at the University of Nairobi, the guy could sell millions of shillings or probably sell the invention to a manufacturer, where in return he could get royalties which could be a good revenue stream for the inventor.

That’s but one of the many inventions that just goes under the bus and after we read it, we enjoy and then life moves on. We have lost Kiondo and Kikoy to other people who are not Kenyans (Am not saying this in prejudice) but it’s because we have been busy sleeping on the job or too ignorant or simple we have procedures that need to be streamlined at the government body, KIPI. Kenya should have registered an industrial design to the kiondo and kikoy and also trademarked the name "kiondo" and “Kikoy” that way we would still be having them around.

Ideally after a rant you could provide possible solutions:

a) Streamlining the process. It takes up-to 60 days to a patent search and filing. How can we reduce this time period? Use of Technology to reduce inefficiencies and hence reduce the turn-around time

b) The Costs - At a tentative cost of $2100 - $2300(Hopefully not inflated), we need to get this to a lower cost. This will encourage more inventions and more patents. Think of it as sales by volume.

c) Collaborate with other government arms. If we could have the vision 2030 team come up with a small office, where we are able to help to encourage the young investors to patent their inventions, then that could be the way to go forward. And this will be to understand all inventions across the board and in all sectors.

d) KIPI - they need to do civil education on IP. This in-turn opens up eyes of inventors to patent their products. Think of it as spreading of word out there and hence revenue streams are high. I think why we lost Kiondo and Kikoy was lack of information.

That’s my 2 cents

ONE OFF THE CUFFS

feminist - Simply put, a Feminist is a woman who says she wants equality but is really expecting special treatment. (Keep in mind women don't usually say what they mean, they expect you to figure it out by just being given ambiguous clues.)



Last night after a long day at work,I met a pal of mine(Who apparently fears publicity and like being mafia.... )those on my timeline on twitter can relate to the story.

Anyways,so we got of the grind(As the would say it in modern lingua),it was shortly after 3 am.I guess most of the people at this hour are normally stretching and starting say a 4th dream or there about.So we lock down a spot on Ngong Road that is 24 hours open,that has to be books first.So we seat down and do our order of pizza with meat,only to get vegetable pizza(Very annoying i must say... And I think they should over-haul that section of the menu).So as we wait we have tea,(Trying to recall all the details as much as I can),we sit to have grown-ass man conversation and after some point of lots of IT oriented paraphernalia we land on the issue of ladies,(how the digression took place still is a mystery to me).

So as we discuss,he makes a statement that astounded me.And I will try to quote it
There are no ladies who are marriage material at the moment and especially in our generation


That for me was a statement worth looking into.After poking and prodding a little more I realise the guy could be having a point.He pointed out lots of things that could influence him to make such a statement.One of the key points that came up was,ladies are competing with men in all the wrong areas and hence loosing track of the purpose of being a lady,having the feminine hormones in them.Eg. In a bar,if you look around on the "hang-out" days in Nairobi,at any given time the ladies are the most in the bars.And as if to add salt to the "wound",they sit down to have a drink in a manner likely to suggest that "I can as well as much up you speed and capacity".(in my case nothing to worry about,but then he also came up with a simple theory,most of the ladies a generation ahead don't pull such ish.They are well mannered and if they decide to drink,its a glass of wine or 2 and they are home and dry.The younger ones will actually try to out-do you when given an opportune moment.

For instance,For the people who take beer we all know that Tusker, the alcohol volume is 4.2% for Guinness,the alcohol volume is 6.5%.Dont get me wrong,everyone has a right to enjoy their drink of choice.

Compare the two photos...... Anyone seeing anything wrong with them?

Anyways,so not in the area of the drink only.He pointed out about the new thing in town,the ladies smoking(Again am a liberal person,but to some certain extent,I just cant accept)and one of them is smoking.As much as men do it,there is absolutely nothing sexy about a lady having a guff in her cute,well-manicured fingers.Went on to also address the clothing styles that are being adopted today.We can always count on our fingers how many decently dressed ladies we meet everyday on the streets.Some of the other things pointed out include cooking(As the saying goes,feed a man properly,and you will have all you want at your beck and call).Just recently,a lady pal of mine(No names mentioned) was surprised that tea could be cooked without using a microwave.#hownow? Seriously,Culinary classes are advertised everyday in our media,from twitter,to facebook ,to our dailies,but i guess modernization has taken place and the good old habits have disappeared into thin air.And the issues were quite a number that came out.

We have read/heard/over-heard in telephone conversations, lots about ladies complaining how there are no good men to marry anymore or as the line goes,the good men are married.Not true at all,we have a couple of good single men,who are willing to take up on the challenge,but where are the ladies?

Will be giving out a list of hints in my next post.

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Volunteering

Giving back to the community has been the highlight of my life. I have always done my best to give back to the society.It has always done me good. I have always given my time to charity. I mean we all work so hard to earn a coin, but in our “balanced” society,not everyone is able to get what they want. These is due to so many issues in their personal lives,others due to avoidable and unavoidable circumstances and many other issues. When you get the less fortunate and you can give, you give.That’s why you will have blessings coming your way.And I have always believed in it. Share share share……If you have energy be out there and give back to the society.

LIFE IS A SWOT ANALYSIS

After a long time of staying “Kienyeji” as they say it, I thought it wise(Of course after being shoved,pushed and my ego bashed into small tiny pieces), to do a SWOT analysis. After looking at it,I realised we live our lives without under-standing who we are and why we are placed in these world.I believe every human being has got capacity to out-do what they are currently doing.But due to just letting life slide along, they live their lives complaining of this is not just working for me,every time am in business it fails,I have tried these,doesn’t work for me….. and many more.A lot of these statements come from people who have the force,mental capacities and capabilities to turn the world around and make themselves useful in a society, which they complain that has no “work and opportunities”.

Look at these for example, am an IT Consultant and that’s because I decided to venture in to business at a young age. I have many other potential skills that I hardly use. In these day and age,there are new IT companies coming up every other day and some of them breaking even in the first six months. So what is it that am not making money myself, and deep within I know if I sat down focused and did a SWOT Analysis I would break even on my third month?

It is important not to assume that you will just run along and things will happen.As I tell these to myself too, wake up from the mental slumber that you are in and do a SWOT Analysis and you will be able to make a difference in your life and society.

MAPPING WITH A DIFFERENCE

After attending WherecampAfrica,I got really inspired what maps can do.With maps you can tell stories about your area,locality,town and city.You can update people on the kind of lifestyle,farming and many other activities including problems going in there.Like recently,I was scouting for a place where we could take food in the Ukambani.And we came across all sorts of issues from the local,from a contractor dumping stones into someones shamba to ladies who have to walk 30 minutes to get a clean source of water.If you think of it,its just human crisis and you know we can come together and alleviate human suffering."Talk of Unity is Strength".You can represent these information in many ways;but after yesterday,I joined the school of we can represent human problems in a map and maybe send the link out.Am so sure we will be able to tell the whole world how that side of the world looks like.

And I will strive to learn online mapping skills and get the world to know what happens in the areas that I will visit.

Interesting how life can take a quick turn,events take place or happen taking a turn that is rapid and unexpected.these normally happens pretty often in our lives.Guess the best part of these;you get a different taste of life with a different view.And once you embrace it,you get along well.Though there are some things like being left by a loved one that you dont get over all that easily.Welll,it takes a considerable time before you pick from where you left.the flip side of the coin;The difficulty of where it happened to you and not that other guy or lady.Never mind life goes on.

LIFE'S HIGHWAY

Think of life as a highway.In a highway there are so many sorts of vehicles,with different number plates,different size of cars and brands,all sorts and types of roads,(Potholed and smooth ones),with different turnings at particular points.But again if you look at it again you can create your own turnings at a particular expense.Think of these scenario,In a highway,there are particular junctions and slip in roads.You might decide to slow down at a very fast lane on the highway to make an illegal turning.There are two or more things that will happen.One,you will be cursed by the people driving right behind you(via hooting and Dropping the next common word ..... the f word followed closely by the s word and many other serious insults.At a point you might be compared to an animal,e.g. Dog,Cow,monkey or something else).Secondly,if its an illegal turning,then the you will break the law,which means,if cops spot you you are in problems.To ensure nothing bad happens to you,ensure you follow the rules of the highway and I guarantee you,the ride might not be all that smooth but it will be a lot better than most of the people.

Look at that analogy and compare it to your life.Enjoy your day!