The Director-General of the National Office for Technology Acquisition and Promotion (NOTAP), Dr. DanAzumi Ibrahim, has called on researchers and innovators in the country to prioritise the protection of their intellectual property.
Ibrahim made this call on Wednesday in Abuja while flagging off a one-day training programme organised by NOTAP for Intellectual Property and Technology Transfer Offices (IPTTO) Coordinators on automated submission of patent applications.
He said patenting of intellectual property was important in order to enjoy the economic benefits of research and development.
Ibrahim said the coordinators had a lot to do to increase awareness among researchers so as to achieve a noticeable geometrical increase in the number of applications for Intellectual Property Protection.
He said it was also important to develop new technologies in the country, saying no nation could be termed developed until it had the capacity for research and development.
The NOTAP boss told the participants drawn from universities, polytechnics and research institutions that nations were considered developed because of their technological advancements.
He added that research and development were keys to the growth and development of a nation as no country could develop without a vibrant intellectual property culture.
“As long as research and development results remain at prototypes level, the efforts of research and development may not have any significant effect on our economic development.
“Nigeria’s economic development is dependent on the number of new technologies developed by Nigeria researchers.’’ Ibrahim said.
He noted that NOTAP registers and approves technology agreement, but that out of 10 applications, six to seven were on software which amounted to capital flight for the acquisition of foreign software.
He assured that NOTAP would change the weak intellectual property culture in Nigeria because no entrepreneur would be courageous enough to invest in Research and Development whose result is not protected.
“I therefore charge researchers to apply for intellectual property protection right first before the outcome of the researches are published,’’ he said.
A participant and former Director of IPTTO, Enugu State University of Technology, Prof. Chinelo Igwenagu, said the training would offer the IPTTO Coordinators the opportunity of comparing notes and sharing ideas with one another.
Igwenagu thanked NOTAP for making the jobs of researchers and developers easier especially as the automated submission of patent application forms would eliminate the challenges of struggling to physically visit NOTAP for submission of patent applications.
NAN reports that the training was organised for the IPTTO coordinators to equip them with the capacity to do their jobs digitally and more effectively.
More than 40 coordinators were trained physically and virtually. (NAN)
