Hire an intellectual property lawyer . . . Not any lawyer. But for a start go to the Kenya Intellectual Property Institute who should be in a position to give you basic advice as to how to go about it.

The procedure for patenting isnt as complex as one may think, but you will need to have all manner of documents and evidence (like samples) for adequate testing for patentability in Kenya's patenting office called KIPI. The innovation that you want to patent needs to meet certain criteria for patentability which essentially are it must be New, must have an Inventive step, and must be industrially applicable. DO you want to patent it in Kenya, in the region ie ARIPO (for a number of African countries), in Europe (through EPO) etc which will affect the costs and the procedures. Let me know if you want more info and help in the patenting.Mimi ni wakili

Mmh, actually @groupie, your quite mistaken about patenting "a property, a process of making the property and or the name". Here's how. A patent, under the Indust Property Act, can be obtained for an invention that is new, has an inventive step, and has some industrial applicability. A process, whether or manufacturing or making this invention or not (ie a process on its own) is also patentable, as long as it meets the 3 requirements above. As for a name, never! A name cannot meet the requirements of patentability, am sure you were talking about a registering a trade mark.
As for WIPO, indeed a patent can be applied for designating WIPO country members, but this is as she said, complicated and perhaps with a bit more thought, may be unnecessary unless you actively want to sell,market or license your product or process. If you want to exploit your patent in designated countries, you can obtain a patent only in those countries also via WIPO, under the Patent Cooperation Treaty. Also because of economic reasons, and depending on where you want to exploit the patent, you may decide to go the ARIPO way.
A lawyer is obviously not necessary, but believe me, you will search for an IP lawyer, or patent lawyer/attorney when you sit down to attempt to define the extent of your patent claims, trying to ensure you claim as broadly as possible and yet without possibly infringing on another patent or worse claiming too widely such that your patent will not end up meeting the requirement of novelty!
Cheers, invention and innovation is def the way forward people, patenting is the first step in the right direction.

@mkenyan nice work, apart from your suggestion "don't even pick up lawyers from the internet (with all due respect to wazua users)" I think you either work at a (relatively) new firm and head its IP, ama you are the partner in charge of Ip in the firm where the first guy av talked about left. True? In both cases, I've tried getting a job with you guys without success. But something will come up soon I can feel it!

well, you absolutely have no clue what you are talking about.

- patent does not involve the registration of a name for a product;

- kikoy has never been a subject of a claim by kenya (under wipo???) for compensation because of a patent;

- hand weaving of kiondo has never been patented in kenya, and it can't be.

are you really sure you know what a patent is?

if your statement quoted above is what your lawyer told you then you should seriously sue your lawyer for negligence and throw in incompetence for good measure.

but given that you have completely ignored what lisaox had earlier on posted explaining what a patent is and distinguishing it from a trade mark, your lawyer might have yet told you one thing and you heard quite another.

@Mkenyan, I believe you know what you're talking about, and sorry for mistaken identity. Working for my own pleasure and pain is definitely best, but one needs experience, contacts and chums. Am in the process of acquiring these then heading for the sky. Thx for the advice.
@Groupielove, I believe you have absolutely no idea what you're on about.I work at K*I*P*I yes, so am thinking sweetie, why dont you just give me your file number here and I will clarify for you once and for all whether you really do hold any patents!