The Director General of the Liberia Intellectual Property Office (LIPO), Garmai Koboi, has returned from a high-level intellectual property conference held in Praia, Cape Verde, with renewed enthusiasm to strengthen Liberia’s intellectual property ecosystem and drive the country’s socio-economic development.
Koboi, who has been at LIPO for about five months, has been working assiduously hard to strengthen the capacity of the country’s intellectual property ecosystem to ensure that creators and innovators adequately benefit from their work.
At the conference in Praia, which was held from June 6-8, Koboi explored collaboration opportunities with counterparts from across the African Regional Intellectual Property Organization (ARIPO) member states to help advance the issues of intellectual property rights in Liberia.
“The conference in Cape Verde was an incredible opportunity to connect with fellow IP leaders from across Africa,” said Koboi, a first-time attendee at the annual ARIPO and WIPO conference. “We discussed and shared knowledge about the latest trends and best practices in intellectual property management.
“As I return, I do so with a renewed sense of commitment to vigorously implement the lessons learned at the conference and leverage the support of ARIPO and WIPO to enhance LIPO’s operation and services. Strengthening our intellectual property ecosystem will not only spur economic growth but also play a key role in driving the country’s socioeconomic development,” Koboi added with a beaming smile.
The 3rd edition of the Heads of Intellectual Property Offices Conference (HIPOC) in Cape Verde brought together all 22 Heads of Intellectual Property Offices from ARIPO Member States to discuss and share best practices, and adopt a coherent approach to deploying technical assistance from the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and other partners.
This year’s conference, themed “Leading Towards a Thriving African Intellectual Property Ecosystem”, featured discussions led by experts on emerging topics such as leadership imperatives in an evolving intellectual landscape.
Ahead of the conference, Koboi, who holds a master’s degree in Intellectual Property from the African University in Zimbabwe, reassured the country’s intellectual property stakeholders of her commitment to fast-track the development of a digital registration platform, conduct an intellectual property economic evaluation study, and develop regulations on copyright, industrial property, and IP enforcement.
Other initiatives include the development of a Copyright and Industrial Property Manual of Examining Procedure, and various types of industrial property and copyright licensing contracts, among others.
These projects, according to stakeholders, are needed to bolster LIPO’s capabilities to effectively generate, protect, and enforce intellectual property rights in accordance with best practices.
Meanwhile, Jamus Bannah, LIPO’s Program and Outreach Unit Head, has also returned from Harare, Zimbabwe, where he attended a WIPO and ARIPO meeting on the development of a Regional Technology and Innovation Support Center (TISC) Network.
During the meeting, Bannah presented on the current state of TISC in Liberia and shared the country’s vision for the future, which captivated and excited the attendees.
Bannah remarked, “The meetings in Harare were highly productive and inspiring. The progress we are making with the TISC initiative in Liberia is promising, and at LIPO we are eager to implement the innovative ideas and strategies discussed to further support our local innovators and researchers.”