frugal innovation

Appropriation of artisans’ intellectual property: Piracy disguised as giving back?

Creative Industries

Creative industries are industries focused on the creation, exploitation and appropriation of artisans’ intellectual property, including art, fashion design, and related creative services, such as advertisement and sales.  During a trip to Burkina Faso in West Africa, Keri Fosse was taught by an African woman how to wrap African artisan fashion accessory craftsnewborns with fabric in a manner that creates a strong bond and frees the mother’s hands for other tasks.

Craft culture

Burkina Faso has a craft culture and is known for its woven cotton and the textile art of Bogolan.  Bogolan is a technique original to and involves the tradition of dyeing threads with bright colors, washing it skillfully, using coated and shiny Bazin, and using indigo from Benin. After this trip, Fosse and her husband developed a shirt which copies the African lady’s, Lalabu’s, technique.

They developed a product called Soothe Shirt; and created a business called Lalabu. Lalabu is also the name of the African woman that the Fosses met. They have been successful. The Fosses have stated that they got the idea from Lalabu, but redesigned it for production. The couple advertises that they “giving back” by giving 2% percent of each purchase to help female African entrepreneurs through microfinancing.

Intellectual property piracy

The Fosses claim that when African women repay their micro-loans, the women reinvest the money into the loan fund. This study argues that such practices do not reflect socially responsible entrepreneurship. Instead, they represent intellectual property piracy. The following sections discuss the relevant legal and theoretical foundations, along with current best practices. However, these practices often lack shared ownership. While Americans may commonly appropriate artisans’ intellectual property within the U.S., their appropriation of cultural crafts from other countries demands closer scrutiny and accountability.

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Black American Frugal Innovators in a circular economy

Introduction
black frugal innovations George Washington Carver

Black frugal innovator George Washington Carver at Tuskegee Institute HBCU

This article advocates that Black American frugal innovators were slaves and freed slaves. They embraced circular economy principles. Frugal innovation occurs when the rich make use of innovations developed in poor countries. There is purportedly a current rivalry between India and China in the frugal innovation arena. This research advocates that the concept of frugal innovation did not originate in Asia or India.

The practice of the rich taking the poor’s innovations is not new. In particular, Black American slaves and freed slaves developed a number of inventions in poverty conditions. It is imperative that frugal innovation research be more historically accurate. This research reduces the marginalization of contributions developed by poor innovators. This increases the more widespread embrace of circular economy principles. If a poor innovator resides in a rich country, then that innovator should not be excluded from the frugal innovator category. To sum up, Black innovators; use of frugality to innovate is pertinent.

North American, Indian and Asian poor

Arguably, Black American inventors during slavery and the reconstruction period post-slavery were indeed frugal innovators. Further, these frugal innovators also embraced circular economy principles. The current scholarship emphasizes frugal innovations originating in India and Asia. These are not the only races of people that are frugal innovators. This current notion is harmful. Perhaps much can be gained in achieving the mainstream implementation of circular economy principles if more diverse populations of frugal innovators were identified. Research on other populations that are frugal out of necessity is necessary. These populations need to be equally marketed and promoted.

In addition to recognizing the frugal innovations that are being developed in rural developing countries, it is important to recognize the contributions of Black frugal innovators. Doing so may help inspire young people to follow this path. Carrying this torch from generation to generation may bolster the sustainability of the frugal innovation movement. Read more here…

See also HBCUs as emerging research institutions in university technology transfer

and HBCU budget resource planning for university technology transfer