The National Office for Technology Acquisition and Promotion (NOTAP) has reiterated its commitments to strengthening the Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) of Nigerian innovators and inventors.
Dr Obiageli Amadiobi, Director-General, NOTAP, said during an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Friday in Abuja.
She spoke against the background of the recently commemorated World Intellectual Property Day which had “IP and music: feel the beat of IP’’ as its theme.
NAN reports that World IP Day celebrated annually on April 26 is a day set aside by World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) to emphasise the importance of a balanced IP system.
It aims at recognising and rewarding inventors and creators for their work and ensure that the society benefits from their creativity and ingenuity.
She said IPR enables researchers, inventors, businesses, designers, artists and others to legally protect their innovative and creative outputs and secure an economic return from them.
“IP if protected will assist people to develop solutions to many challenges confronting the continent. It will help in eradicating poverty and drive sustainable development.
“ Technology is a driver of socio-economic development; we are committed to the process of improving and domesticating technologies.
“ It is a creation of the mind and it could be literary, arts, drawings, inventions that can be protected in law so that it can be commercialised.
“It can enable the innovator to earn a living, benefit from it in cash or kind, be recognised and earn a living,’’ she said.
She said IPR offers the inventor a legal right to their invention, in the form of trademarks, patenting or copyrights thereby encouraging innovation and investment.
She said protection of IPR helps the inventor to create and recreate and such innovation, adding that it cannot be stolen and offers competitive advantage, and technology transfer.
“NOTAP, as an agency, has the added responsibility of promoting inventions and innovations of Nigerian researchers.
“NOTAP has not failed in pursuing the mandate especially in sensitising the research community and the general public on the vital role of IPR in Nigeria’s technological development,” she told NAN.
She said these responsibilities were carried out through the establishment of over 65 Intellectual Property and Technology Transfers Offices (IPTIOs) across the country.
She also said NOTAP, as a regulator of technology transfer from foreign countries into Nigeria, observed the disconnection between industries and the academia, which resulted in the absence of value creation.
The D-G said to strengthen research and development infrastructure, NOTAP was also engaging the private sector to upgrade laboratories in various tertiary institutions across the country.
She added that NOTAP initiated key programmes to alleviate and address these challenges.
