The Director General National Office for Technology Acquisition and Promotion (NOTAP) Dr. Barr. Obiageli Amadiobi has tasked the Coordinators of the Intellectual Property and Technology Transfer Offices (IPTTOs) on the need to submit more requests for patenting.
She gave the task when she led the management team of the office to inspect the IPTTO established by NOTAP at the Bayero University Kano (BUK) recently.
Dr. Amadiobi said that there is a crucial need to encourage researchers, inventors and innovators on protecting their Intellectual Property (IP) through patenting to avoid being stolen.
She also charged researchers to ensure that their research is not merely an academic exercise for promotion but demand driven that could lead to products and services with resultant monetary benefits.
In his remarks, the coordinator of the IPTTO at the university, Prof. Ibrahim Rufai said that there is low awareness on intellectual property and intellectual property rights within the university community and that he is discussing with the NOTAP North West Zonal officer on the need for a sensitization workshop for the university community on IP.
While paying a courtesy call on the Vice Chancellor of the university, Dr. Amadiobi expressed appreciation to the leadership of the institution for providing NOTAP with an office accommodation for the North West Zonal office.
She noted that the university has so far secured one patent through NOTAPs assistance with two other applications pending and charged the university on the need to do more. She also noted that the university has a candidate that is enrolled in the NOTAP-Industry Technology Transfer Fellowship (NITTF) programme which is commendable.
In his remarks, the Vice Chancellor of the university Prof. Sagir Adamu Abbas who welcomed the NOTAP team to the university said the institution has an existing relationship with NOTAP having provided an office space for the NOTAP North West Zonal office and the establishment of the IPTTO by NOTAP at the university campus.
He said that BUK has research centers and centers of excellence adding that the institution is willing to collaborate with NOTAP to open more frontiers for research to address societal needs.
The NOTAP boss also inspected the North West Zonal office of NOTAP and charged the office to be up and doing and the zonal officer to submit projects that aligns with the mandate of the office.
The visit of the new NOTAP DG to Kano is part of her familiarization tour of NOTAP zonal offices and Intellectual Property Technology Transfer offices established by the office.