The Kenya National Chamber of commerce & Industry (KNCCI) in collaboration with the Ministry of Trade, Kenya Industrial Property Institute (KIPI), Anti-Counterfeit Authority (ACA), US Embassy and World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO)- Kenya marked the World Intellectual Property Day on celebrations at the KICC, Nairobi

The World Intellectual Property (WIP) Day is marked on the 26th of April every year. This year’s theme was  “IP and Youth: Innovating for a better future” meant to celebrate youth led innovation and creativity.

The event was officially opened by Amb. Kirimi Kaberia, PS for The State Department of Trade and Enterprise Development, in his speech, He recognized and appreciated Intellectual Property IP as an important instrument for technological and social-economic development.

He stated that the Ministry through KIPI had rolled out various reforms to encourage IP rights, including waiving registration fee for youth innovators.

The celebration saw the awarding of five 2021 WIP Day winners (SMEs) and three 2022 winners (Youth Innovators) for their exemplary ideas, ownership and use of intellectual property to generate value for their businesses. Presenting the 2021 awards, KNCCI IP Committee Chair Ms. Angela Ndambuki encouraged SMEs and youth entrepreneurs to register their business ideas, in order to own and protect them and be able to reap full benefits from their innovations.

KNCCI established the IP sectorial committee to provide strategic guidance to the Chamber’s IP agenda and support the Chamber to foster a business environment that encourages creativity.