Patent systems and innovation capacity in developing countries: Evidence from Botswana

ABSTRACT Motivation Despite the increasing adoption and strengthening of patent legislation across developing countries, there is limited context‐specific evidence on how patent frameworks interact with domestic innovation capacity in countries characterized by emerging innovation ecosystems and constrained institutional capabilities. Botswana provides an under‐researched setting for examining how patent law, innovation institutions, and commercialization structures interact in practice. Purpose This study provides a comprehensive documentary doctrinal policy analysis of Botswana's patent framework through an innovation systems perspective. It examines the legal and institutional mechanisms through which the patent framework may support or constrain domestic innovation capacity, identifies the principal constraints within the innovation ecosystem, and derives context‐specific policy reforms. Approach and Methods The study combines doctrinal legal analysis, policy analysis, descriptive innovation indicators, and comparative assessment. It examines the relevant provisions of Botswana's Industrial Property Act, national policies on intellectual property and innovation, institutional and administrative materials, and international intellectual property instruments. India, Kenya, and South Africa are purposively used as comparative jurisdictions because they provide relevant contrasts in patent administration, institutional development, and innovation system maturity. The analysis is guided by National Innovation Systems and Triple Helix perspectives. Findings The analysis identifies three interrelated categories of constraint. Legal and administrative constraints concern patent processing efficiency and accessibility; institutional constraints include limited technology transfer and commercialization capacity, specialist expertise, and coordination; and policy constraints include weak innovation financing and insufficient integration between intellectual property policy and wider innovation objectives. The Botswana case shows that patent protection contributes to innovation capacity principally through its interaction with complementary research, commercialization, financing, and institutional capabilities. Policy Implications Priority reforms include improving patent administration, strengthening technology transfer and commercialization institutions, expanding innovation financing, and integrating intellectual property policy more effectively with national innovation and economic diversification strategies.