The Nigerian Copyright Commission (NCC) has emphasised the need for the protection and effective management of innovation technologies and knowledge based assets of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Ltd (NNPCL) and other industries in the country’s petrochemical sector.
Its Director-General, Dr. John Asein, said this at the opening ceremony of a five-day capacity building workshop on Intellectual Property Law and Management for the staff members of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company’s (NNPC) Research Technology and Innovation (RTI) Department.
Represented at the event by the Director NCA, Mrs. Funmi Adewale, the NCC boss observed that NNPC’s intellectual properties including new technologies, critical research data, and unique software are critical to it’s future growth.
He emphasized the importance of protecting NNPC’s intellectual assets, including patents, copyrights, and trade secrets. Noting that failure to do so will be detrimental to national development and reputation.
He said:“Protecting these knowledge-based assets is as crucial as protecting your physical infrastructure. You secure your pipelines, your drilling rigs, and your refineries because they are critical to your operations.
“In the very same way, you must secure your patents for new fuel formulas, your software copyrights for data analysis tools, and your trade secrets for proprietary extraction processes.
“The risks of not doing so include financial loss, a weakened competitive position, and reputational damage, to mention a few, which are simply too much to ignore” he stressed.
He stated that the workshop is aimed at equipping NNPC-RTI staff members with practical knowledge on managing the company’s intellectual assets, including patents, copyrights, and trademarks, and mitigating risks associated with IP infringement; and that it is a significant step in the collaboration between both organizations, towards ensuring that NNPC’s creative and innovative assets are protected and utilized effectively.
He assured of the commission’s commitment to provide NNPCL with the technical support required to set up a viable IP system.
He urged the participants to actively engage the facilitators, ask questions and seek necessary clarifications, noting that they are the guardians of NNPCL’s creativity and innovation.
