The paper focuses on the Creative Economy and an environment where those who create original works, the creatives who turn ideas into products, flourish economically too. It is this focus which then looks at intellectual property approaches as one of the many available considerations towards value chain innovation for those who create within the arts-culture context. Writing mainly from a southern Africa context where individual creatives are often part of cheap labour as opposed to being part of expertise driving Cultural and Creative Industries. The paper proposes a rethinking of current intellectual property approaches as part of value chain innovation for individual creatives embedded in design thinking.The session will be Communication based and discussing research work, from 2018 to date, on how intellectual property works for individual creatives and rural-village based creative hubs in southern Africa. Although intellectual property is usually discussed from a legal perspective, the research has been addressing it as part of many tools at the disposal of the Creative Economy. Here, design thinking takes on an approach where observed individual creatives and rural-village based hubs make use of digital transformations within their practice. With the digital transformation comes internet connectivity which makes creatives tap into international networks that their countries might not be currently represented due to different international relations. This paper argues for an interllectual property approach that will also benefit such individual creatives and rural-village based hubs.A ssucinct introduction of research this far, context of southern Africa with case studies across three countries and creatives will be communicated. It is from this southern Africa context that current intellectual property approaches are seen to benefit big businesses in southern Africa than the individual creatives.