The Director General National Office for Technology Acquisition and Promotion (NOTAP) Dr. Barr. Obiageli Edith Amadiobi has called for a stronger collaboration with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) on Intellectual Property (IP) development in Nigeria.

The NOTAP boss made the call when she led the office management team on a courtesy visit to the Country Director of WIPO, Dr. Oluwatobiloba Moody at the United Nations headquarters in Abuja. Dr. Amadiobi said having visited some of the Intellectual Property Technology Transfer Offices (IPTTOs) established by NOTAP in some Universities in Nigeria, she realized the need for capacity building and more awareness on intellectual property to encourage demand-driven research and the protection of the IP of researchers, inventors and innovators.

She noted that WIPO had a cordial working relationship with NOTAP which culminated in the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) in 2006 but the execution is slow and there is an urgent need to reinvigorate the collaboration.

She emphasized the need to reassess and retrain the coordinators of the IPTTOs in order to improve their capacity to manage the centers for optimal results in intellectual property management.

The NOTAP DG therefore appealed to WIPO to consider training of the coordinators and NOTAP officials in the WIPO Academy in order to strengthen their capacity on intellectual property matters especially in a fast-changing world of technology since they handle various aspects of intellectual property for researchers.

Responding country Director WIPO Nigeria Dr. Oluwatobiloba Moody said NOTAP is an important partner to WIPO because of its mandate which promotes innovation. He noted that WIPO has the Technology Innovation and Support Centers (TISC) in Nigeria which uses WIPO databases to run but the structure and wider reach of the NOTAP IPTTO will complement the work of the centers.

The country Director said the organization has programmes on developing IP which include the IP Labs for start-ups to teach them how to apply IP to their businesses, the IP Skill Acquisition Learning and Youth Entrepreneurship (IP SALAYE) which WIPO rolled out last year in collaboration with the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) and the IP for Green Innovators which the organization is partnering with the Nigeria Climate Innovation Center Lagos to launch stressing that NOTAP and WIPO can collaborate on some of these programmes to ensure that IP is entrenched in Nigeria.

Dr. Moody also said that the organization is considering co-designing projects and programmes with critical partners which include NOTAP to identify and train people on how IP works. He added that WIPO can design and implement a course for the training of NOTAP officials and specific training for the IPTTO Coordinators.

He said WIPO can also offer NOTAP training on technology transfer in its academy and looks forward to receiving an outline of specific courses from the latter for the organization to design a training plan. In her comments during the visit, the Director Technology Acquisition and Research Coordination department of NOTAP, Mrs. Carol Annie-Osuagwu said some NOTAP officials had benefited in the WIPO training in the past but the office needs specialized training in IP and Patent Drafting and Specification.

She said NOTAP has so far established 65 IPTTOs in the country but there are many requests from Universities and Research institutes to establish more which the office cannot accommodate due to dearth of funds. The Director added that the offices are requesting for training because they are eager to know more about IP noting that as a result of NOTAPs awareness programme on IP in the IPTTOs, more patents are emanating from the Universities and research Institutes.

The visit by the new Director General of NOTAP to the WIPO Nigeria office has reinvigorated the collaboration between the two organizations towards entrenching the culture of innovation and inventiveness in the country.