CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA,. – June 6th, 2008 – Light Years IP a Washington, DC non-profit organization yesterday launched a new report on the potential for Intellectual Property (IP) business strategies to increase and secure income for low-income producers in sub-Saharan Africa.
Ron Layton, CEO of Light Years IP stated: “Billions of dollars of additional export income for low-income producers across Sub-Saharan Africa can be secured by using the IP business concepts that we applied to the very successful Ethiopian fine coffee initiative-which has doubled the income of some coffee farmers.”
The report examines the scale of untapped IP business opportunities among distinctive African products to dramatically increase the income that small-scale producers receive. Experts contributing to the study estimate the scale of that income increase to be somewhere between 230% to 320%–far above the 1.6% annual growth in non-mineral exports over the past decade.
“The Department for International Development sees the innovative use of Intellectual Property-based strategies by low-income producers in Sub-Saharan Africa as a valuable tool in poverty alleviation” said UK Secretary of State for International Development Douglas Alexander at the launch event.”We were delighted to support this report, which is a reflection of our view that these strategies are important, and we will continue to be actively involved.”
The report will be followed by workshops for low income-producers to develop and implement appropriate IP-based strategies. Concurrently, Light Years IP is conducting feasibility studies on several projects, and is in the advanced stages of establishing a $25m investment fund to assist producers in implementing these IP business strategies.
To learn more about these initiatives, visit the following:
- The new report (with supplemental information),”Distinctive values in African Exports”:www.lightyearsip.net/scopingstudy
- The Ethiopian Fine Coffee Project: www.ethiopiancoffeenetwork.com
- Learn more about Light Years IP: www.lightyearsip.net
- To stay up to date, join the mailing list at [email protected]
