FG to foot tech inventors’ patent bill – Minister

From now onward, the Federal Government will help technology inventors pay patents’ bills for their works, the Minister of Science and Technology, Dr Ogbonnaya Onu, has said. Dr Onu, who disclosed this at a one day training workshop on intellectual property rights for CEOs of parastatals of the ministry in Abuja, said many inventors were […]

From now onward, the Federal Government will help technology inventors pay patents’ bills for their works, the Minister of Science and Technology, Dr Ogbonnaya Onu, has said. Dr Onu, who disclosed this at a one day training workshop on intellectual property rights for CEOs of parastatals of the ministry in Abuja, said many inventors were poor and helping them to pay for patents would safeguard their intellectual property and improve the industrialisation drive of the government.
He said the number of patents a country has would definitely determine how developed such country would be.
“To encourage more Nigerians to tread the path of innovation and invention, we will from now onward help inventors pay for their patents. Let them just bring their works to the ministry and will check and if we are satisfied with the originality we will pay for the patents”, he said.
He said the major missing link in the country’s development path was science and technology.
He said: “We want to make sure that all research findings are commercialised. We want to improve on the industrialisation drive because industrialisation will strengthen the middle class.”
Earlier, the Director General of National Office Technology Acquisition and Promotion Dr Dan Azumi Ibrahim said Nigeria’s weak patent culture was affecting its economy negatively.