Intellectual Property Rights: The Effects on Information Security and Research Innovations in Nigeria

Irene N Ezeasomba ,Felix C Aguboshim

doi:10.7176/isde/10-7-06

Abstract

The rise of new digital technologies and file-sharing networks has definitely made it harder for organizations to protect their intellectual property (IP). This is made even harder by the fact that there is no uniformity in the enforcement of laws that are designed to protect against IP theft, especially in Nigeria. Nigeria is ranked among countries in Africa where Intellectual Property (IP) theft or piracy is prevalent. Technology required for the operation of Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) in Nigeria is still largely undeveloped,out-dated, and non-sustainable despite the huge human resources and technological innovations.This study highlights the gaps created by the ineffectiveness of anti-counterfeiting and anti-piracy tactics to curb the challenges of IP and strategies to close them. In this study, the authors explored a narrative review of prior research that focused on the theoretical underpinnings of vast works of literature that revealed significant information on IP challenges facing research and innovation for national development and strategies to close these gaps. The authors also extracted peer-reviewed articles within the last five years from electronic databases, using some keywords such as “intellectual property”, “IPRs”, “IP penalty and offences”, etc. Results show that IP regulations and policies are crippled by out-dated, non-sustainable or virtually non-existent policies, counterfeiting and anti-piracy system. Findings from this study may encourage proper implementation of IP: copyrights, trademarks, patents, and trade secrets for technological innovations and development in Nigeria. Keyword: Intellectual property copyrights. Trademarks, Trade secrets, Intellectual property, ICT sustainability\ DOI : 10.7176/ISDE/10-7-06 Publication date : October 31 st 2019

Highlights

Intellectual property rights (IPR) in research innovations can be defined as the right to assign the research results to its creator, not limited to time and space, and non-transferable (Sargolzaei & Fateme, 2017)
World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO, n. d., as cited in Blakeney, 2005) stated that intellectual property may include the rights relating to:literary, artistic and scientific works;performances of performing artists, phonograms, and broadcasts;inventions and innovations; scientific discoveries; industrial designs; trademarks, service marks, and commercial names and designations;protection against unfair competition; andall other rights resulting from intellectual activity in the industrial, scientific, literary or artistic fields.In research innovations, two points of view can be considered for copyrights: (a) as incentives for creative production, and (b) as a commodity for the consumer, who seeks to use it for free or at a negligible cost
According to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), intellectual property rights arelegal rights designed to protect creations and/or inventions resulting from intellectual activity in education, industrial, scientific, literary, or artistic fields (ITU, 2017)

Summary

Introduction

Intellectual property rights (IPR) in research innovations can be defined as the right to assign the research results to its creator, not limited to time and space, and non-transferable (Sargolzaei & Fateme, 2017). Significant amount of empirical researches point to the fact that humans appear to be the most important links to the information security of any organization, and invariably constitute the highest risk to the information security measures and information integrity of any organization (Stallings & Brown, 2012). This is because of the differences in behavior regarding the intent to implement security measures or administrative errors (Komatsu, Takagi, & Takemura, 2013).Information security defined the technique by which innovational institutions protect and secure systems and system resources, media, and facilities that process and maintains information. Key www.iiste.org elements of any security program must address: confidentiality,integrity, and availability (Stallings & Brown, 2012)

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Conclusion