Leveraging Patent Information to Improve ICT Innovations in Tanzania

Patent information is an essential ingredient for fostering innovations. Although most of developed countries have been using patent information as a source of technological information to assist R&D companies and organizations, Tanzania is lagging behind. Recognizing the critical role of patent information in nurturing innovations, Tanzania has recently engaged in conducting awareness training on patent information to researchers and innovators. Despite the effort, ICT Innovators in Tanzania are not keen in using patent information. The authors' preliminary study indicated that 47% of respondents had knowledge of patent databases and 61% of them believe that the information can improve their innovative ideas. In contrary, 77% of the respondents had never access the databases. These revelations led us to conduct a study to determine factors that hinder ICT Innovators in Tanzania from using patent information to improve their innovative ideas. The study was conducted at BUNI Innovation Hub and DTBi Incubator in Dar es Salaam where 70 ICT Innovators and 3 Innovation Managers were involved. The study employed self-administered questionnaires and interview for collecting data. The study revealed that lack of patent search skills, language used in patent documents, subscription fees, unreliable electricity supply and limited access to the Internet are among the factors.