By Makutu Manneh
The Industrial Property Right (IP) Office of the Ministry of Justice has on Thursday, 16th July, 2020 launched a Technology Innovation and Support Center (TISC).
The TISC which is hosted by The Gambia Technical Training Institute (GTTI) aimed at increasing awareness on intellectual property (IP), creating networks and supporting inventors in patent filing and IP commercialization as well as to offer other related quality services to the public.
Intellectual property is a category of property that includes intangible creation of the human intellect. The most well-known types of IP rights are copyrights, patents, trademarks and trade secrets.
Edward C. Mensah, the Director-General of GTTI said accommodating such a project in his institution is a step in the right direction for them and the country because GTTI will become a technical university in the near future.
“When this idea was brought to us, we embraced it because this is a step in the right direction,” he said.
He said they want to ensure that all their research henceforth will go through the normal process of registration and they are counting on the IP Office of the Ministry of Justice to help them with that.
Mr Mensah commended the IP Office of the Ministry as he promised to find space to house the project, adding that they will be looking forward to a fruitful collaboration.
Abdoulie Colley, the Acting Registrar General thanked GTTI for accepting to house the project and emphasized that the project is very important to the Country. He said TISC is a project of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) under the Development Agenda to assist developing countries like The Gambia to have access and use technical information in the public domain in order to come up with appropriate technologies for their respective countries. Mr Colley finally thanked the members of the National Intellectual Property Council for gracing the historic occasion.
Alieu Jallow, the Registrar of Companies in his turn congratulated GTTI for being the first institution to host the TISC in The Gambia. He urged them to use the opportunity to create awareness about intellectual property. The occasion was attended by representatives from Judiciary of The Gambia, Gambia Investment and Export Promotion Agency, Gambia Armed Forces and Ministry of Justice.
