Expert speakers at ImpactHER’s 2025 World Intellectual Property Webinar have identified the role that intellectual property plays in helping entrepreneurs achieve business success.
The webinar, which was organised by ImpactHER, was held in partnership with the African Union and had in attendance over 260 female entrepreneurs from 29 African countries and 3 non-African countries.
According to the keynote speaker, Uwa Ohiku, senior partner, Jackson, Etti & Edu, intellectual property plays a very vital role in business success some of which includes – helping businesses gain competitive advantage, creating new revenue opportunities, improving access to funding, attracting strategic partners, minimizing legal risks, footprint expansion and earning customers trust.
She said:
“Intellectual Property can help set businesses apart by giving them a distinct brand identity and value. It can also make the business more appealing to investors, acquirers and collaborator with its protected brand value. To access funding, investors and lenders often see registered IP as a sign of value and credibility and can also serve as a market entry strategy when a business is seeking expansion.
Protecting IP puts a business under pressure to deliver on its promises and to continuously improve on its goods and services and through such quality, businesses earn their customers’ trust and continued patronage”.
Panelists who spoke at the webinar on the topic- “Common IP pitfalls for female entrepreneurs”, noted that female entrepreneurs can protect themselves from falling prey of their IPs through Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDA), early registration before commencement of the business and having a commensurate budget that matches business strength.
Jenner Akwale, an intellectual property specialist urged female entrepreneurs to do regular audit of their IP, create a policy that guides their IP, desist from using copyrighted work as their own and must always read all contracts carefully.
“There are some investors who would want to hide IP clauses in their contracts, female entrepreneurs need to be very careful about this”, he expressed.
Another panelist, Susan Musyoka, noted that female entrepreneurs should embed their IP into their business strategy to foster creativity in their business.
In her submission, Omotayo Queen Onakoju, the head of Legal at EbonyLife Studios, explained that female business owners should not be tempted to download free online materials and use it for marketing purposes as this constitutes copyright infringements.
“Copyrighted works have two rights- moral and economic. These two go hand in hand and cannot be separated. To use any copyrighted work, they must be given the due credit and must also be paid for it”, she noted.
