Kenya National Innovation Agency (KeNIA)

The WIPO-KeNIA Practical IP Management, Commercialisation and Value Creation Program (Day Three)
The final session of the day took participants out of the training room and into the field. Together with the World Intellectual Property Organization – WIPO and KeNIA teams, the participants visited JHUB Africa at Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT), where they toured the hub and learned first-hand information on how it operates.
The visit offered a practical look at how a #university-based innovation hub supports innovators, from nurturing ideas to turning them into solutions with real-world impact. It also tied the day’s lessons on #IP filing and strategy to the places where innovation actually happens. Seeing the ideas, the people and the processes behind a working hub reinforced a message that ran through the whole day, protecting innovation starts early and the right support system makes all the difference.

Our sincere appreciation to the JHUB Africa team for the warm welcome and for sharing their work with us

#KeNIA #WIPOKENIAEXECUTIVEPROGRAM2026 #EnablingInnovation #WIPO

The WIPO-KeNIA Practical IP Management, Commercialisation and Value Creation Program (Day Three)

The day started with group presentations on the previous day’s assignment, followed by an interactive session on #IP #filing and strategy led by Jenner Akwale, an Intellectual Property Expert. The session helped participants answer three questions every innovator must face: where to file, when to file and how much it will cost.

Using real cases, participants saw how costly mistakes can be.Given an example of a US inventor who lost her patent after showing her #design at a party before filing, showing that anything made public before filing can be used against you. The golden rule is to file first and talk second and to file in the countries where you will sell, make or license.Participants also explored the three filing routes: national filing at Kenya Industrial Property Institute (KIPI), which is the cheapest first step and starts the 12-month priority period, regional filing through African Regional Intellectual Property Organization (ARIPO), which covers several member countries with one application and international filing through either the Paris route or the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT).

#KeNIA #WIPOKENIAEXECUTIVEPROGRAM2026 #EnablingInnovation #WIPO

A useful or successful product is not automatically patentable.

The WIPO-KeNIA Executive Programme|| Day Two
The participants continued with two insightful sessions led by Dr. Rose Mboya, Head of Industrial Linkages, Policy and Intellectual Property at Kenya Industrial Research and Development Institute (KIRDI), on turning research results into defensible #IP decisions.

In the first session, on #Patentability, #Disclosure Discipline and #IP Mining, participants explored the three tests of #patentability, learned how to uncover inventions hidden in research outputs and saw why protecting an invention before publishing it is critical.

In the last session, a hands-on practical on #Invention Disclosure and Search Strategy, participants built a patent search strategy from scratch, from defining the invention and extracting keywords and synonyms, to constructing Boolean search strings, identifying IPC codes and running live searches in #WIPO PATENTSCOPE.

Together, the sessions showed that sound IP decisions begin with early action, disciplined disclosure and a systematic prior art search.

#KeNIA #WIPOKENIAEXECUTIVEPROGRAM2026 #EnablingInnovation #WIPO

WIPO-KeNIA Executive Programme|| Day Two
The second day opened with an engaging session as groups presented the assignments given using the knowledge they got in day one. Using the IP Diagnostic Tool, each group had interrogated its own business, project or innovation and presented the protectable and valuable assets it had identified. Groups also explained how they ranked these assets to set their protection priorities and how they worked through the protection decision matrix, weighing each priority asset against subject matter, novelty, secrecy, speed, market, cost and disclosure risk.
Additionally, each group walked through their reasoning and chosen approaches and participants were able to see how the same tool and criteria applied to different assets and circumstances. The exercise put the previous day's teaching into practice, turning concepts into practical, asset-specific decisions.
#KeNIA #WIPOKENIAEXECUTIVEPROGRAM2026 #EnablingInnovation #WIPO

WIPO-KeNIA Executive Programme|| Day One
We started off with a session on Kenya's #IP policy architecture, institutional mandates and how policy underpins the IP-to-value pathway nationally led by Jenner Akwale an #Intelectual Property expert. He showed why Kenya needs the IP policy as only 5.6% of #patent applications come from universities and research institutions and under 20% of universities, research bodies and TVETs have an IP policy. This leaves many innovations stuck in the "valley of death" between research and market. The session also covered what the draft policy proposes, including technology transfer offices, institutional IP policies and new funding for IP protection. Clarisse Mideva an Intellectual Property expert then led participants through the IP toolkit and their own WIPO IP Diagnostic findings. She covered #patents, #trademarks, industrial designs, #copyright and trade secrets, when a patent may not be the best option, who owns what employees and contractors create, licensing and how to take IP across borders and defend it. The day ended with a hands-on lab where mixed teams mapped the IP in one real case, decided how to protect their top assets and checked what the draft policy would do for them. The teams are expected to do their presentations tomorrow.
#KeNIA #WIPOKENIAEXECUTIVEPROGRAM2026 #EnablingInnovation #WIPO