The National Office for Technology Acquisition and Promotion (NOTAP) has urged inventors and researchers to commercialise their intellectual property for economic gains.

NOTAP acting director-general Theresa Imiyoho gave the advice on Tuesday in an interview in Abuja.

She said the office was working assiduously to ensure that Nigerian inventors and innovators exploited the financial benefits of their research results by establishing IP offices in knowledge institutions across the country.

“Patents that cannot address economic challenges like unemployment, poverty or translate into products and services, become liabilities and are not worth keeping.

“Researchers with patented inventions or innovations can license them for the purposes of getting royalties accruing from their research undertakings or sell them off to venture capitalists for onward commercialisation,” said Ms Imiyoho.

According to her, the country has depended more on consuming products from foreign countries over the years, while Nigeria is blessed with an array of intellectuals.

Ms Imiyoho added, “Inventions and innovations are products of research, therefore, Nigerian researchers should take up market and demand-driven research that will translate into goods and services for the benefit of the country.

“Rather than the conventional research for the purposes of career progression, researches are to ensure the commercialisation of their patents in order to exploit the financial benefits.”

She explained that intellectual property “is the property of human intellect” and should be exploited through commercialisation for the financial benefit of the holder.

“IP right is a right granted to the owner of an invitation by the government to exclude others from financial exploitation of the invention for a number of years to enable the owner to recoup his or her investment.

“No meaningful technology development could be achieved by any country without investing heavily on research, which is capable of turning products to the market for local satisfaction,” she said.

(NAN)