The management of intellectual property (IP) emanating from publicly financed research and development has become a critical factor in ensuring that the public derives greater returns from the increasingly significant R&D investments made by government. The South African Government introduced the Intellectual Property Rights from Publicly Financed Research and Development Act 51 of 2008 (referred to as the IPR Act) to provide a regulatory framework for the management of this type of IP. The National Intellectual Property Management Office (NIPMO) was established in mid-2011 in terms of the Act to promote and manage the objects of the Act. NIPMO aims to ensure that recipients of funding from a government funding agency assess, record and report on the benefit to society of IP emanating from publicly financed R&D. Recipients must protect IP emanating from publicly financed R&D from appropriation and ensure that it is available to the people of South Africa. A recipient must identify commercialisation opportunities for IP emanating from publicly financed R&D. Human ingenuity and creativity must be acknowledged and rewarded: the people of South Africa, particularly small enterprises and BBBEE entities, must have preferential access to opportunities arising from the production of knowledge from publicly financed R&D and the resultant IP.