Secure the Legacy: Patent and Trademark Everything African – Before It’s Gone

By David Coleman

I once dated someone who proudly showed off a US$30 jar of luxury soap she had just bought. I looked at it and almost laughed out loud. It was Alata Samina – the same Ghanaian black soap we grew up using – just repackaged with a sleek label and a hefty price tag.

Same scent. Same texture. Same ingredients. Just fancier packaging.

I told her, “For US$30, I could get you three buckets of this from the Makola Market in Accra.”

That moment stayed with me.

The Cost of Not Owning Our Own Culture

We keep losing ground – not because we lack creativity or cultural wealth – but because we fail to formalize ownership. While we debate whose jollof rice reigns supreme, others are filing trademarks for kente cloth, baobab extracts, and sobolo drinks, transforming them into global, million-dollar brands.

Let that sink in: Kim Kardashian trademarked her daughter’s name – “North West” – as a brand. She trademarked “Kimoji,” too.

And yes, she even tried to trademark “Kimono” until Japan’s government pushed back.

Meanwhile, we hesitate to protect Adinkra symbols, traditional black soap formulas, or the names of our ancient kingdoms. We say Africa is rich, but we don’t safeguard our cultural intellectual property.

If we don’t own our heritage legally, we can’t own it economically. And if we don’t value it enough to protect it, others will continue to sell it back to us – repackaged, rebranded, and renamed – as their latest innovation.

Instead, we export it freely, only to later import it back – with a ribbon on top and a markup to match.

A few years ago, my cousin visited Ghana with her Dutch boyfriend. As we drove through Kumasi, he couldn’t stop pointing out business ideas inspired by everyday sights.

To him, Africa was an open canvas of opportunity. To us? It was just another Tuesday.

That’s the tragedy: often, it takes foreign eyes to recognize the value of what we take for granted. And by the time we do, someone else has already filed the paperwork.

So here’s the call to action:

Patent everything African

Trademark names, recipes, patterns, languages, sounds, rituals, and innovations. This isn’t about playing the victim or assigning blame – it’s about claiming what’s ours.

The challenge isn’t always to invent something new, but to recognize, protect, and celebrate what we already have.

Because if we don’t own our heritage legally, we can’t own it economically. And if we don’t value it enough to protect it, others will continue to sell it back to us – repackaged, rebranded, and renamed – as their latest innovation.

And somehow, it will look oddly familiar.

David Coleman is a seasoned marketing leader with over two decades of experience driving growth at the nexus of brand strategy, platform innovation, and customer success. With a proven track record in repositioning brands, reengineering business processes, and expanding markets through data-driven strategy and creative execution, he is known for his strategic vision and ability to lead teams to peak performance. Passionate about local insight and cultural relevance, Coleman champions solutions that empower impactful, homegrown enterprises – particularly across Africa. He remains deeply engaged in uncovering overlooked narratives that shape businesses and economies on the continent, informing smarter and more contextually grounded strategies.