From MSN

In many countries in Africa, protection of intellectual property is still patchy or undeveloped, and many innovators are put off by the onerous and expensive affair of registering their products.

Despite a wave of technological innovation washing over the continent, many inventors are working in secret, doing without peer feedback for fear of having their ideas pinched by copycats.

They are wary too of weak national court systems that are often largely ineffectual in enforcing IP rights.

“In the beginning, we thought of just operating without registering due to the arduous and costly process. In addition, protection is only guaranteed for 10 years,” Drongo’s founder Ravololonjatovo told Reuters.

Named after a black-feathered bird found in Madagascar that mimics the calls of other birds, Drongo is developing mobile applications for text translations in international languages like English and French. Ravololonjatovo hopes to widen that to software that recognises the oral Malagasy language.

“Thinking big, we anticipate what might happen someday as we grow globally, so we need some kind of protection,” Ravololonjatovo said, adding it was precisely this that prompted him to register with local patent protection authorities.

Read more at MSN