Kenya plans to create new Kenya Intellectual Property Authority in move that should support the launch of IP-backed finance

Photo by David Clode on Unsplash

Kenya’s government has introduced a Bill in the National Assembly, the lower house of the Kenyan Parliament, which would merge three State agencies into a single authority, to be called the Kenya Intellectual Property Authority.

At the moment, responsibility for registering and enforcing IP protection rights is split between the Kenya Industrial Property Institute (KIPI), the Kenya Copyright Board (KECOBO), and the Anti-Counterfeit Authority (ACA).

The legislation will also rewrite Kenya’s laws on patents, utility models, industrial designs, copyright, and related rights, as well as anti-counterfeiting measures, which are currently covered by different Acts of Parliament.

A post by law firm Spoor & Fisher on its site says:

“If the Kenya Intellectual Property Authority Bill is passed, the new law will repeal the existing Industrial Property Act, 2001 (governing Patents and Industrial Designs), the Copyright Act, 2001 and the Anti-Counterfeiting Act, 2008. It also affirms that the existing Trade Marks Act (Cap. 506) and Geographical Indications Bill, 2026 (the latter still under consideration by the National Assembly) will be administered by the new Authority.”

And an article on Kenyan news and opinion website Vellum suggests that while “much of the political momentum behind the merger is enforcement-driven… the Bill’s real significance lies beyond the restructuring, in what a single institutional home for intellectual property could.”

The article’s author, journalist Brian Otieno, adds that Kenya’s small companies face a funding gap:

“their principal assets are often software, platforms and brands, yet lenders still privilege land and equipment, leaving innovative firms underfinanced.” The proposed new law would create “the legal certainty needed for follow-on reforms in valuation standards, secured transactions and IP-backed finance, without which intangible assets remain commercially valuable but financially unusable.”