The University of Cape Town has an institutional Intellectual Property Policy that applies to students, staff, and visitors.
In certain instances, it may best serve the public interest to obtain legal protection for research outputs to make them commercially attractive and to develop useful processes, products, and services that can have economic and social benefits.
The policy provides a framework for governing the rights and responsibilities of all stakeholders in relation to IP creations and importantly provides for the recognition and provision of incentives for the innovative contributions of individual researchers.
Our IP Policy needs to comply with South African legislation and in particular, it is approved by the National Intellectual Property Management Office (NIPMO) in terms of the Intellectual Property Rights from Publicly Financed Research and Development Act (Act 51 of 2008). The current policy was approved by Council in 2011 and IP is governed by the university policy that is in place when the IP is created.