Thursday July 5, 2007
Patent and commercialise creations, inventors urged
PUTRAJAYA: Malaysian inventors and researchers stand to lose millions of ringgit if they do not patent and commercialise their creations.
Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Minister Datuk Shafie Apdal said they should understand the importance of protecting ideas.
“Getting awards for good inventions alone is not enough but this is what’s happening now. Students, from both schools and universities, have invented many things.
“They just receive awards for best invention and we do not hear of them again. Their inventions are not patented and neither are the products commercialised,” he told newsmen after the ministry’s monthly gathering on Tuesday.
Shafie said their ideas were often taken by others, who then make big profits from commercialising the inventions.
The minister said there was a need to bridge the gap between the invention and commercialising of the ideas, adding that local inventors should also be allowed to become entrepreneurs for their own products and own shares in the company commercialising the products.
He said Malaysians must earn royalties from their inventions and commercialise them as Malaysian products.
Shafie also announced that Malaysia would have a representative at the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) in Geneva by September.
A. Manisekaran, 52, who is currently the Intellectual Property Corporation of Malaysia’s Copyright Division director, has received the appointment letter from WIPO. He is now waiting for the official letter of secondment from the Public Service Department.
Shafie said it was important to have a Malaysian in such organisations to get first-hand news of important matters, especially those that could affect the country’s economy, as well as act as a voice for the country.
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