University Education and Intellectual Property in the Digital Era: Whither Botswana?

The national level of Intellectual Property Law covers national legislation and policy as well as common law, while at the international level it covers international treaties and conventions to which Botswana is a signatory. The Mission of the University of Botswana is to advance the intellectual and human resource capacity of the nation and the international community. In this regard, the goal of this paper is that the University plays a central role in the development of intellectual property law and policy and in the protection of intellectual property at the University and the nation at large. The University must articulate its position on intellectual property issues so as to influence national policy and legislation as well as international developments in intellectual property in the digital era. The area that greatly affects the University of Botswana in its core business is copyright. Accordingly, this paper focuses mainly on issues arising in copyright especially in the digital era and how they affect the University’s core business. The paper covers the duration of copyright, licensing agreements, the cost of digital information, the preservation of digital information, distance learning, the protection of indigenous knowledge systems, and the development of intellectual property education.