Prof Alex Antonites of the Department of Business Management was the only South African expert elected by the World Intellectual Property Organisation as a panel member of the official global review of entrepreneurs, innovation and intellectual property, Innovating for Success Promoting the Use of IP by SMEs, putting UP on the global map regarding entrepreneurship and innovation.

The World Intellectual Property Organisation approached a number of international experts to serve as panel members of Innovating for Success Promoting the Use of IP by SMEs. As panel member of this guidance document, Prof Antonites will provide guidance and advice regarding the promotion of small enterprises’ innovative capacity, as well as South Africa’s position on the subject. This opportunity also offers possibilities for further research in this exciting and dynamic field.

Prof Antonites’ field of speciality is entrepreneurship and specifically innovation, which includes intellectual property. He has delivered papers and presented classes all over the world on this subject. His knowledge has already been utilised by the World Intellectual Property Organisation when he held a presentation at their headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland regarding the development of intellectual property for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in emerging markets. His advice was also called upon regarding the unique inventions developed by entrepreneurs in South Africa in the past.

Prof Antonites is thankful that his work and passion is being recognised. “Our department and faculty continuously afforded me the freedom to think freshly and creatively, as well as to apply what we have learnt and develop innovative entrepreneurs. The invitation to serve on the panel is evidence that our expertise is highly regarded, with innovation-driven countries like Finland, Sweden and Japan also working on this review document.”

The review document is the first of this subject to be distributed internationally. The review process takes place online and the panel members will submit their reports in the middle of May.