By Ruth Kumwenda
Blantyre Secondary School’s Intellectual Property (IP) Club won a US$800 award and a gold medal on December 3, 2024, in the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and African Regional Intellectual Property Organization (ARIPO) regional IP club competition held in Zimbabwe.
Malawi faced the host, Zimbabwe that came second while Liberia appeared at the bottom of the competing countries.
Blessings Phambala, a form 3 student, who represented the BSS IP Club in Zimbabwe, told Malawi News Agency (Mana) that the club was inspired to join the competition after observing a lot of infringement of IP rights.
“What inspired us to join the club was as a result of seeing that people who create various art works such as choreography dances and songs, the real owners, fail to benefit from their work. Other people steal songs and reproduce them claiming that the songs are theirs and they make profits from stolen art,” she added.
Arriving in the country on Thursday, Blessings further expressed gratitude for participating and wining the competition and described the competition as tough.
“The levels were pretty high; the competition was tight and the questions were difficult, but we emerged victorious. It was not easy, but we made it by the grace of God.
“Before the competition, I prayed to God to lead me and l cannot say it was because of my hard work but God allowed me to win for my club,” she said, adding that questions in the competition were mostly on issues to do with IP.
In a separate interview, BSS IP Club, matron, Stella Phiri, said that the IP club brings awareness to both students and the community about IP rights, IP infringement and negative impact on individual originators and the nation at large.
She further expressed gratitude saying that Blessing represented her country very well and was proud that Blessings received an award on top of a gold medal in the WIPO-ARIPO IP Regional Clubs Competition.
“Blessings is a highly confident girl; she demonstrated a comprehensive knowledge and understanding of the IP rights. The way she expresses her comprehensiveness of IP rights with reference to practical situations related to IP, was because of her self-esteem,” Phiri added.
IP club at BSS was established in September 2024 and it consists of 20 students, 9 girls and 11 boys after being trained on issues to do with IP rights.
The training exposed the gap in knowledge about IP rights and their infringements. IP is protected by four rights: copyrights, patent rights, trademark rights, and design rights.
The club performs different activities such as dances, music, poetry and drama to bring awareness about IP rights to students at BSS and the community as the club plans to expand its activities through other forms of arts.
At national level, Blantyre Secondary School, Mchitanjiru Secondary School, St. Johns Secondary School, Chinsapo Secondary School, Zingwangwa Secondary School, competed and BSS emerged winners to represent Malawi in Zimbabwe.
