The National Office for Technology Acquisition and Promotion (NOTAP) has charged intellectual property stakeholders to ensure the commercialisation of their patents to exploit the financial benefits.
The acting director-general of NOTAP, Dr. Thereza Imiyoho, speaking at a one-day Patentees Forum held in Owerri, the Imo State capital, on Wednesday, titled “After Patent, What Next”, said the programme organised by NOTAP aims to guide Nigerian inventors and innovators to exploit the financial benefits of their research results.
In a statement signed by NOTAP’s assistant chief information officer, Raymond Ogbu, the Acting DG said that the programme is being organised in all six geo-political zones of the country to ensure that researchers who have patented their inventions can exploit their financial benefits through commercialization.
Dr. Imiyoho said that patents that cannot translate into products and services become liabilities.
She stated that researchers with patented inventions or innovations can licence them for the purposes of getting royalties accruing from their research undertakings or sell them outright to venture capitalists for onward commercialisation.
“Over the years, the country has depended more on the consumption of products from foreign countries, while Nigeria is blessed with an array of intellectuals.”
Dr. Imiyoho further said that inventions and innovations are products of research; therefore, Nigerian researchers should take up market- and demand-driven research that will transmute into goods and services for the benefit of the country rather than conventional research for the purposes of career progression.
“In the early 70s, Nigeria, South Korea and Brazil were referred to as developing Countries but today, Nigeria is still grappling with scarcity of funds for research while South Korea is flooding Nigeria and other African Countries with products of their research.” Imiyoho said.
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She added that NOTAP was ready and willing to ensure the development of indigenous research and development R&D results to fast-track the Nigerian Science, Technology and Innovation ecosystem.
In his goodwill message, the Head of Development Finance, Central Bank of Nigeria, Owerri Office, Mr. Ogbuagu Camillus, said that the organisation is collaborating with development banks to ensure that funds are made available to undertake critical research works. He said that inventors and innovators with bankable research can approach the CBN, Bank of Industry (BOI), or other development banks for loans as well as grants where attainable.
In the same vein, the Director of Technology Acquisition and Research Coordination (TARC) department of NOTAP, Mrs. Caroline. Anie-Osuagwu, said in her paper titled “Exploitation of Intellectual Property Rights,” that intellectual property is the property of human intellect and should be exploited through Commercialisation for the financial benefit of the holder.
Mrs. Osuagwu said that an intellectual property right is a right granted to the owner of an invitation by the government to exclude others from financial exploitation of the invention for a number of years to enable the owner to recover his investment.
She reiterated that no meaningful technological development could be achieved by any country without investing heavily in research that is capable of turning products into a market for local satisfaction.
She encouraged researchers to patent and licence their inventions to venture capitalists to avail them of the opportunity of recouping money from the investment in their research.
Participants and stakeholders from the southeast zone commended NOTAP for the impactful programme, requested the office’s assistance in connecting them with investors and up-takers for the commercialisation of their inventions and also appealed for more funding.
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