A network of all Research and Development departments and Office of Research, Innovation and Commercialisation (ORIC) of universities would be developed to encourage innovations in the country, Intellectual Property Organisation (IPO) Director General Sajjad Ahmad Bhutta said on Thursday. The IPO DG was talking to the National University of Science and Technology (NUST) officials. He said that Intellectual Property (IP) training modules would also be introduced in various organisations to make the trainees aware of the importance of Intellectual Property Rights. He stressed the need for collaborations to transfer the IP knowledge to all offices in Pakistan and to enable them to apply patents in a professional way. He said that the role of IPO in technical capacity building and management of innovation by the universities was very important.
The meeting discussed the formal collaboration of IPO-Pakistan with educational institutions in the country, which would help the young researchers and innovators to register their creations without any delay, besides gaining advance knowledge and research-based guidance from the experts in the relevant field. NUST School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (SEECS) DG Dr Arshad Ali stressed the need for international cooperation and protection of innovation, adding that NUST had given due importance to these subjects. The role of Higher Education Commission for promotion of R&D and ORIC was also appreciated on the occasion.
