Mobile application for filing of and payment for Intellectual Property Rights using QR code: case of Kenya industrial property institute

Abstract

Ensuring secure transmission of sensitive data and payment of transaction fees has been one of the challenges affecting customers and businesses. Intellectual Property (IP) field is one such area that has faced such challenge. Over the years, IP has grown in importance, attracting greater interest and increased need by inventors and other IP rights holders to seek protection of their inventions and other IP rights. To ensure protection of these rights, applicants are required to file their applications at IP offices and remit various fees during the examination process, as well as pay annual maintenance fee for the protection to remain valid. While filing for IP rights, applicants face security challenge, as their IP data can be intercepted while in transit or be exposed to third parties thus compromising their inventions. In addition, while making payment of IP fees, they face challenges such as delayed transactions and platform incompatibility. On the other hand, IP offices are susceptible to loss of revenue as a result of less-than-secure payment methods used. Hence, this study aimed at establishing how proximity/contactless technology could be incorporated into mobile-based devices to support secure mobile filing of and payment systems for IP rights. This research therefore proposed a process to develop a QR code-based mobile application that would facilitate speedy and secure filing and transmission of IP data as well as settlement of payments by IP rights holders to IP offices. Consequently, a functional mobile application that can generate a QR code, post the same to a remote server and make payment by scanning a QR code is presented. Additionally, a simple web page is provided to present the submitted information which has been encoded in QR format. Data collection was achieved by means of questionnaires and review of secondary data sources. The study was conducted in line with ethical practices as specified by the University rules and regulations.