[kictanet] Dreams of a cosy career that turned into a nightmare

Tue Nov 20 14:42:23 EAT 2012

If innovation is to belong to the company, the remuration should have been
commensurate...without even thinking of intellectual property rights, if
this was a tendered contract, how much would a supplier have asked for?
And, what if the said Samson goes ahead to provide a similar system to
another company? Maybe the two parties should just talk this out...

2012/11/20 Ali Hussein <ali at hussein.me.ke>

> Grace
>
> I guess that's the question the courts will answer as I believe this has
> already been taken up by lawyers for Samson.
>
>
> http://www.nation.co.ke/Features/smartcompany/Dreams-of-a-cosy-career/-/1226/1623712/-/qdkj18z/-/index.html
>
> I think though the bigger question is how are we preparing our young
> brilliant minds for the rough and tumble of starting and building
> sustainable businesses?
>
> *Ali Hussein*
>
>
>
> Twitter: @AliHKassim
>
> Skype: abu-jomo
>
>
>
> On Tue, Nov 20, 2012 at 12:37 PM, Grace Githaiga <ggithaiga at hotmail.com>wrote:
>
>>  Ali
>>
>> Does the innovation belong to the employer considering it may have been
>> developed to suit the needs of the employer? This might be open to various
>> interpretations by different lawyers.
>>
>>
>> This caught my attention:
>>
>> "According to the letter, KRA has used the technovation and communicated
>> it to a third party, although the law states that this entitles the
>> technovator to “a remuneration which shall be fixed by mutual agreement
>> between the technovator and the enterprise.
>>
>> This is because KRA went ahead to submit the system to an international
>> innovation fair, where it won an award. It has since publicised the award,
>> even on its website".
>>
>>
>> http://www.nation.co.ke/Features/smartcompany/KRA-caught-up-in-Sh1-billion-tender-row/-/1226/1623708/-/item/2/-/rpgfcm/-/index.html
>>
>>
>> ------------------------------
>> From: ali at hussein.me.ke
>> Date: Tue, 20 Nov 2012 09:58:01 +0300
>> Subject: [kictanet] Dreams of a cosy career that turned into a nightmare
>> CC: kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke
>> To: ggithaiga at hotmail.com
>>
>>
>> Listers
>>
>> This is an interesting case study of the link between employer/employee
>> relations on Intellectual Property. Who owns the IP when you
>> invent/innovate while working at a company and the invention/innovation is
>> directly linked to the work you have been hired to do?
>>
>> IN SUMMARY
>>
>>    - When Mr Samson Ngengi beat thousands of applicants to land the
>>    coveted position at the tax agency in December 2009, the graduate of Jomo
>>    Kenyatta University of Science and Technology (JKUAT) had one thing on his
>>    mind; to ensure that he gets absorbed into the job
>>    - Mr Ngengi came up with an innovation that links plot boundaries and
>>    location, ownership, and building details as well as tax status of a
>>    taxpayer as a single view in a computer application, in an effort to give
>>    KRA an insight into how to get its pound of flesh from the lucrative real
>>    estate sector
>>    - His innovation was named the Geo-spatial Revenue Collection
>>    Information System (GEOCRIS). But little did he know that he would, early
>>    in his career, find himself fighting his employer
>>
>>
>> Is there a strong case here to also focus our Techpreneurs on the
>> 'softer' stuff of turning their ideas/products etc into viable businesses?
>> You know the boring stuff...the nuts and bolts of building an enduring
>> business? Protecting your business idea, building a business system to
>> deliver on the values opposition, sales, legal standing (company
>> registration) etc..
>>
>> What would have happened if Samson had decided to quite his job at KRA
>> and develop his idea independently?
>>
>> There has been lots of news of late about the hype that has become known
>> as 'Silicon Savannah'. It would be sad if the hype is not concurrently
>> followed by serious efforts to build an ecosystem to support all these
>> brilliant (and not so brilliant) ideas and turn them into strong enduring
>> businesses.
>>
>> For every Cellulant there are maybe tens of others that will never see
>> the light of day.
>>
>> There is a case here for a new type of Multi-stakeholder intervention -
>> between government, private sector (VC, Companies etc) and Not For Profits.
>> I suspect this is already happening in some form or other. More focus is
>> required.
>>
>> Ali Hussein
>> CEO | 3mice interactive media Ltd
>> Principal | Telemedia Africa Ltd
>>
>> +254 773/713 601113
>>
>> Sent from my iPad
>>
>> _______________________________________________ kictanet mailing list
>> kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke
>> https://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/listinfo/kictanet Unsubscribe or
>> change your options at
>> https://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/options/kictanet/ggithaiga%40hotmail.comThe Kenya ICT Action Network (KICTANet) is a multi-stakeholder platform for
>> people and institutions interested and involved in ICT policy and
>> regulation. The network aims to act as a catalyst for reform in the ICT
>> sector in support of the national aim of ICT enabled growth and
>> development. KICTANetiquette : Adhere to the same standards of acceptable
>> behaviors online that you follow in real life: respect people's times and
>> bandwidth, share knowledge, don't flame or abuse or personalize, respect
>> privacy, do not spam, do not market your wares or qualifications.
>>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> kictanet mailing list
> kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke
> https://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/listinfo/kictanet
>
> Unsubscribe or change your options at
> https://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/options/kictanet/nmutungu%40gmail.com
>
> The Kenya ICT Action Network (KICTANet) is a multi-stakeholder platform
> for people and institutions interested and involved in ICT policy and
> regulation. The network aims to act as a catalyst for reform in the ICT
> sector in support of the national aim of ICT enabled growth and development.
>
> KICTANetiquette : Adhere to the same standards of acceptable behaviors
> online that you follow in real life: respect people's times and bandwidth,
> share knowledge, don't flame or abuse or personalize, respect privacy, do
> not spam, do not market your wares or qualifications.
>

-- 
Grace L.N. Mutung'u (Bomu)
Kenya
Skype: gracebomu
Twitter: @Bomu
Website: http://www.diplointernetgovernance.org/profile/GraceMutungu
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://lists.kictanet.or.ke/pipermail/kictanet/attachments/20121120/bf966c4b/attachment.htm>