Margibi County – As the 17th session of the Ministerial Council of the African Regional Intellectual Property Organization (ARIPO) begins in Liberia, several leaders and collaborative partners from across the globe have committed to strengthening the Intellectual Property System (IPS) of Africa.
The meetings, which are being held at the Farmington Hotel in Margibi County, are expected to end on Friday, November 22.
Speaking during a special press stakeout after the opening of the Ministerial Council, ARIPO outgoing Chairman of the Council of Ministers and Minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs of the Republic of Malawi, Bright Msaka said that there is a need to tap into the talents and natural resources that Africa possesses so that Africans can graduate from poverty to prosperity.
“ARIPO embodies the hopes and aspiration of Africa. We want to promote innovation and creativity so that Africa can develop sustainably in the modern economy by initiating its own ideas, products, and innovations that will help this continent to develop at a pace with tremendous progress,” stated Mr. Msaka.
Speaking on behalf of the World Intellectual Property (WIPO) office, the Director of the Africa Bureau at WIPO, Mac Sery Kore disclosed that his institution is committed to strengthening and making the Intellectual Property Office of Liberia (LIPO) performs according to the standard of the World.
“WIPO and its partner ARIPO will continue to work to train people by developing their human capacity and also to modernize the IP office for them to provide good services to the users,” disclosed Mr. Kore.
Also speaking, the Minister of Commerce and Industry of Liberia and ARIPO incoming Chairman of the council of ministers, Professor Wilson Tarpeh stated that Liberia is pleased to assume the “huge responsibility” of chairing the council.
“Intellectual property is so critical to every aspect of human life, especially when it comes to creativity and innovation. In this country we have a lot of young talents…,” said the Minister Tarpeh.
He referenced the testing of the hypothesis virus vaccine by Liberia with the discovery of a blood cleansing agent by the Liberia Biological Research Institute.
He said “unfortunately” Liberia cannot own them because of failure to protect them.
“We are in a country where the hypothesis virus was tested successfully. Unfortunately we did not protect the scientific processes that lead to that test…,” Minister Wilson.
The Liberian Commerce Minister stated that his government has decided to take the necessary steps in bringing together talented young people from diverse backgrounds including actors, actresses and musicians under one umbrella to ensure they benefit from the work they do.
“We have young people in this country with great talents but we do not protect their innovation and creativity,” stressed Min. Tarpeh.
He, however, called on African leaders to take necessary steps in enacting laws that are necessary to protect IPs so that the benefit of creativity can be realized. Liberia will be chairing the council for a period of two years.
For his part, the Chief Executive Officer of the Intellectual property office of Canada, Konstantinos Georgaras said his country has learned a lot from challenges faced by Africa.
“I am shock by the level of potential I see in front of me; it is very well documented and there is unbounded potential for growth,” he said, adding that Canada faced many of the same IP challenges that Africa is experiencing but is developing the right strategies and policies.
As guest of the occasion, Liberia’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Gbezongar M. Findley stated that acquiring the intellectual property rights of a number of things including artists in the whole of Africa has been a challenge.
“In Africa, not only Liberia, medicine, innovation discoveries that are done in Africa hasn’t been protected and we see that we are in a new dispensation where the intellectual property rights of those who are innovative [and] creative are exploring 22nd century can have their rights protected; and revenue source from that will benefit not only Liberia but continent of Africa,” Min. Findley said.
He added that the conference will reflect that “Africa is ready to take the next leap in protecting the rights of its citizens, their innovation and their intelligence.”