Empowering Uganda’s Start-ups Through Intellectual Property (IP) Education

Early this year, the Ministry of ICT and National Guidance (MoICT&NG), in partnership with Ngura Consult, conducted an Intellectual Property (IP) Awareness Clinic for Tech Founders, hosted at the National ICT Innovation Hub in Nakawa.

The clinic marked an important step in advancing the Ministry’s ongoing efforts to strengthen Uganda’s innovation ecosystem. Building on the launch of the Uganda ICT Intellectual Property Guidelines earlier in February, the clinic focused on safeguarding innovators’ rights and promoting the commercialisation of local innovations to generate sustainable income.

This high-impact session emphasised the importance of integrating robust IP governance into Uganda’s rapidly evolving tech landscape, reframing intellectual property not as a complex legal requirement but as a strategic asset essential to start-up growth, competitiveness, and long-term company valuation.

Flavia Opio, Team Lead at the National ICT Innovation Hub, crystallised the clinic’s purpose, noting that while founders are commendable for moving at "lightning speed from idea to launch," they often overlook the legal ownership and safeguarding of those brilliant ideas. She stressed that the Hub’s mission is to help them recognise, protect, and ultimately monetise these intangible assets, which are the true drivers of a company's worth.

The event’s expert lineup delivered practical guidance to demystify IP, the legal term for creations of the mind encompassing everything from inventions to artistic works, designs, and commercial symbols. These protections grant the innovator exclusive rights to exploit and benefit from their creation, providing a vital incentive that spurs economic growth.

Leading the charge was Paul Asiimwe, Managing Partner at SIPI Law Associates, who delivered a powerful keynote on “De-risking innovation through legal and strategic IP imperatives.” Drawing on his extensive advisory experience, Asiimwe argued that ignoring IP creates significant legal and financial pitfalls. He emphatically stated that IP is a strategic asset that investors demand, competitors attempt to mimic, and founders must embed into their growth strategy from the very beginning.

Shirley Gladys Nakyejwe, an Intellectual Property Specialist at the Ministry of ICT and National Guidance (MoICT&NG), also provided practical insights into what founders can legitimately claim as their own. She addressed common misconceptions and broke down the different forms of protectable innovation from technical elements such as lines of code, which fall under Copyright, to physical inventions safeguarded by Patents or Utility Models, and the distinctive names and logos that define a brand’s identity, protected through Trademarks.

Rounding out the sessions, Michael Byamukama from Ngura delivered a vital practical talk on internal IP Governance. Byamukama dove into the seemingly small, often-overlooked details that can later derail a company, such as establishing clear ownership structures among co-founders and ensuring robust IP assignment clauses are in place for all contractors. Getting these internal matters right early is critical to avoiding major headaches during fundraising or exit opportunities.

The Ministry of ICT and National Guidance leveraged the forum to emphasise its commitment through the Uganda ICT IP Guidelines. These guidelines serve as the national roadmap for managing and commercialising intellectual property rights for locally developed IT systems and applications. The core goal is not only to safeguard innovators’ rights, whether they are creating new technology or adapting foreign ones, but also to enable the commercialisation of innovations to generate income from exploiting IP in the marketplace.

The interactive Q&A session that followed emphasised the strong demand for more discussions of this kind, delving into topics ranging from software licensing to investor expectations around IP audits. Summing up the participants’ sentiments, Immaculate Muthoni, Risk and Compliance Officer at IOTEC, noted that the clinic offered much-needed clarity and practical guidance on how innovators can effectively protect their creations.

With attendees leaving armed with actionable strategies, the clinic marked a successful step in the National ICT Innovation Hub's broader effort to raise awareness around these intangible assets as powerful drivers of valuation and sustainable growth in Uganda’s tech entrepreneurship.