Protecting your Intellectual Property begins with you

Since 1999, the African Union (AU) set aside the 13^th of September, as the African day for Technology and Intellectual Property rights across the continent. Nigeria, through the National Office for Technology Acquisition and Promotion (NOTAP), has been at the forefront of celebrating this event, which is aimed at exploring and developing the intellectual potentials of Nigerian youths, researchers, inventors, and innovators; as well as enshrining the values Nigeria place on Science, Technology, and Innovation.

This year, NOTAP commemorated the day in the company of the participants from the Research for Impact Bootcamp at Innov8 Hub, Abuja.

The DG of NOTAP, Dr. DanAzumi Mohammed Ibrahim, in attendance at the event, waxed lyrical on the Innov8 Hub’s facility. He also commended the current and past works innovators have done through the Hub. Speaking furthermore on the need to improve funding for technology and innovation in the country, as well as rallying a call for intellectual property development, the DG was quoted saying:

“We need to see how to improve on the funding of technology in Nigeria. We have a very weak culture of protecting our intellectual property. We have a bad habit of telling the whole world about our ideas and innovation without publishing them the right way. When we do that, we leave it for the public to have a piece of our idea.

If Nigeria’s capacity needs to be developed in the areas of international best practices, every innovation or invention has to first be protected by patenting it. Patenting protects our innovations from piracy.’’  Dr. Ibrahim, also an academic, admonished members of the research community, reminding them that the development of the country rests on them as researchers and members of the academia. According to him, the Nigerian research community knows its problems better than anyone else. No one outside the country should help innovators and researchers find solutions to their problems, as they need to take responsibility for the development of science, technology, and innovation in Nigeria.