Botswana’s Industrial Property Rights Act (1996) provides a legal framework for the country’s innovators to seek protection for their intellectual property (IP). The industrial property office however has to grapple with a shortage of qualified staff, as well as high administrative costs of, for example, searching for patent information. BOTEC takes an active part in creating IP awareness in Botswana to assist inventors to be more creative and benefit from their innovations. BOTEC’s IP policy seeks to address a number of issues including increased participation of Botswana in international IP-related treaties (Patent Cooperation Treaty, Madrid Protocols, International Registration of Marks and International Deposits of Industrial Designs), access to information on protected works that are related to BOTEC activities, and dealing with new technology that has been transferred to companies.