Notap Wants Researchers Educated on Patent Laws

Dr. Umar Bindir, director general of National Office for Technology Transfer and Acquisition (Notap), has called on the government to arrest the ugly trend of losing research work, claiming that the country loses 60 per cent of unquantifiable research works through pirating or other undocumented forms because of ignorance on the path of researchers and inventors.

Dr. Bindir stated that the panacea for the trend was to educate these inventors and researchers on patent laws and their effects on their academic results.

“It is a clear indication for us that researchers and inventors need more education in patenting not to repeat the invention that others have done.’’

He stated that about 60 per cent of the patent applications in 2012 were not patentable because most of it was already knowledgeable in the public domain. He stated that out of the patent submissions for 2012, only 25 per cent were patentable and 10 per cent questionable and still undergoing examination.

Notap was established to carry out patent examination to help private inventors, research institutes, universities and polytechnics on their claims.

“We also advise them on the drafting and content of their submissions if they are proper and patentable,” said Bindir.

NOTAP is also said to be in collaboration with the Librarian Registration Council of Nigeria and planned to organise a workshop on capacity building for researchers on effective utilisation of library materials for research and development.

He said that the two offices had overlapping function as they provided intellectual services to researchers.

“`NOTAP as a regulator for technology transfer provides its services to researchers in terms of creation of intellectual properties, which were divided into two components, the industrial property and the copyright. Industrial property captures patent, trademarks, industrial designs, trade secrets while the copyright side requires documentation on software, artistic impression and so on.

“The library is the custodian of intellectual materials in forms of videos, CDs, macro chips, journals and books, which are covered by the intellectual property rights,” Bindir noted.

He stated that both the librarian council and Notap are linked intellectually for the research and development for science, technology and innovations to advance the society.