Nigerian Government Commited to Protection of Intellectual Property – Foreign Affairs Minister

The Director General of World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO), Daren Tang, will on June 1, commence a three-day working visit to Nigeria.

This is as the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Bianca Odumegwu-Ojukwu said Nigeria is committed to the protection of intellectual property.

 

The Minister spoke when she received in audience, the Director of WIPO, Nigeria Office, Mr Oluwatobilola Moody and his team, who came to brief her on the activities of the United Nations agency including the forthcoming visit of its Director General.

 

The Agency creates services that enable creators, innovators and entrepreneurs to protect and promote their Intellectual Property (IP) across borders and acts as a forum for addressing cutting-edge IP issues.

 

Nigeria hosts the first and only WIPO Office in Sub-Saharan Africa, serving as a model and a resource for the broader region, and enjoys WIPO’s support in modernizing its IP administration systems, particularly in the digitalization of trademarks and patents registry using the Industrial Property Automation System (IPAS). The IPAS is central to reducing timelines and improving transparency.

 

According to the minister, WIPO serves the world’s innovators and creators, ensuring that their ideas travel safely to the market and improve lives everywhere.

 

Therefore, it needed all the sensitisation for Nigerians to know what it means and does. She also highlighted that the country’s soft power in the creative industry should benefit maximally from the siting of the Agency’s office in Nigeria.

 

“You talked about Nigeria’s soft power in the creative industry; I expect that hosting the office here in Abuja, it means that there should be a whole lot of openings for young Nigerians,” Odumegwu-Ojukwu stated.

 

The Minister further called for technical assistance programme in the WIPO Nigeria Office to build capacity as well as commercialising cultural heritage for economic gains.

 

Briefing the minister, the Director of WIPO, Nigeria, Mr Oluwatobilola Moody, said the visiting WIPO chief would among other activities officially inaugurate the Agency’s Office in Abuja.

 

He noted that WIPO recently shifted focus toward a more inclusive approach, making intellectual property (IP) more accessible to micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs), youth, and women.

 

He explained that the priority of the current leadership of WIPO is adapting the IP system to emerging technologies like Generative AI and ensuring it supports human creativity.

 

Moody assured that Nigerian creatives and innovators would continue to benefit from the programmes of the organisation.