Safeguarding patent, intellectual property rights in Nigeria

Current realities make it less fashionable to rate a nation’s might by sheer population, geographical landmass or mineral resources alone. Observers say that an added dimension has been the scope of the “organic mass knowledge” in a country’s citizenry, expressed as Intellectual Property Right (IPR). According to Professor Ita Ewa, the Minister of Science and […]

Current realities make it less fashionable to rate a nation’s might by sheer population, geographical landmass or mineral resources alone. Observers say that an added dimension has been the scope of the “organic mass knowledge” in a country’s citizenry, expressed as Intellectual Property Right (IPR).

According to Professor Ita Ewa, the Minister of Science and Technology, “intellectual property right plays a major role in achieving sustainable development of any nation.

“Technology and innovation property systems have long been recognised to be among the foremost important factors in nation building and wealth creation.”

By experts’ analyses, IPR plays very significant role in encouraging innovation, product development and technical change.

The experts blame the inability of Nigeria’s academic and research institutions to generate revenue from inventions, as the situation in developed economies, on poor patent culture.

Malam Shafiie Ahmed, the Chief Technology Officer, National Office for Technology Acquisition and Promotion (NOTAP), argues that licensing of intellectual property is strategic to a nation’s wealth creation and economic development.

Ahmed says that for instance, global revenue from licensed IP in 1990 was 10 billion U.S. dollars, while it rose to 110 billion U.S. dollars in 2000.

He recalls that Japan alone generated over 986 billion U.S. dollars from patent in 2008. “It is also on record that Kodak paid over 900 million dollars for infringing on Poland’s Instant Camera patent, while the licensing of just three patents earned Stanford University the sum of 150 million dollars, ’’ he says.

Ahmed explains that IPR protection creates knowledge diffusion, just as it encourages investments that are beneficial to the society in wealth creation and employment generation.

For purposes of clarity, patent is an exclusive right granted by government to the owner of an invention, which can either be product or a process that provides a new solution to a technical problem or a combination of both.

This right excludes an unauthorised user from infringing on the patent by making, using selling or importing the patent invention in the protected territory.

Covered by such exclusive rights are a variety of intangible assets like musical, literary, and artistic works; discoveries and inventions; words, phrases, symbols and designs. The common types of intellectual property rights include copyrights, trademarks, patents, industrial design rights and trade secrets in some jurisdictions.

Ms Caroline Owoseni, an official of NOTAP, says that patent plays a very vital role in promoting research and development, while stimulating transfer of technology.

“Patent is important in providing information on state-of-the-art innovations in a specific field of technology, preventing researchers reinventing the wheel, improving an existing product or process and it is also useful in finding alternative solution to technical problems.”

She expatiates that technical information provided in a patent document provides support and rich database for research and development, which helps to monitor the activities of competitors within and outside a country.

Such information also gives room for continuous development of technology, she adds. “This is why countries with strong intellectual property base have succeeded in producing enormous research results that are effectively commercialised.

“They also attract proven and highly developed technologies   from other nations, unlike the developing countries with weak intellectual property base. “It is in recognition of this that nations strive to strengthen their intellectual property base through strong protection and enforcement of intellectual property laws,’’ Owoseni says.

NOTAP is the parastatal agency under the Federal Ministry of Science and Technology which coordinates patents and IPR. By its mandate, therefore, the agency has the responsibility for evaluating or registering technology transfer agreements; promoting intellectual property; commercialising R & D results; as well as promoting research industry linkage.

It also promotes locally generated technologies, while promoting and developing creative and inventive skills among Nigerian scientists, researchers, inventors and innovators.

NOTAP’s Director-General, Dr Umar Bindir, says that Nigeria is fast learning to master the intricacies of IPR, as most industrialised countries have done.

“The difference between developing countries and developed countries literarily is in the act of creating IP and turning them into access and wealth.

“Out there, you create the IP when you get things that are applicable in the industry and patent them; so, the right will come to you and anybody that wants to use it will pay for your knowledge and work,” Bindir says.

Ewa confirms that his ministry, through NOTAP, has been assisting indigenous researchers to patent their inventions at the Patent and Trademarks Office in the Ministry of Commerce, at no cost to the researcher.

“Patent application submitted to NOTAP are substantively evaluated and forwarded to the Ministry of Commerce for consideration and issuance of patent.

“So far, about 358 patent applications have been submitted to NOTAP, 144 have been filed at the Patent Office and 79 have been granted,” Ewa says.

Ahmed insists that patent culture in Nigeria is still very weak and attributes this to factors such as inappropriate R&D orientations, lack of information on viable commercial inventions, among others.

(NANFeatures)