Dr Khairuddin: Protect your intellectual properties

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KUCHING: Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (Unimas) researchers and inventors are urged to protect their intellectual properties in order to transform them into products that can be commercialised.

Vice chancellor Prof Datuk Dr Khairuddin Abdul Hamid believed that it was possible to commercialise products or inventions from the university.

“Commercialisation is not an easy task and will certainly take a long time and continuous effort from everyone, including the management and investors.

“I believe we could make this happen, which will bring Unimas to another level of achievement, contributing to quality products that will benefit the local and global communities,” he said at the launching ceremony of the inaugural Unimas Intellectual Property (IP) Day yesterday.

The event was to create greater awareness about the role of IP in creating future prosperity for the society and nation as well as to recognise and appreciate the efforts of the researchers and scientists.

Khairuddin said Unimas management has unanimously agreed that all researchers and inventors whose products have IP protection be given the necessary support and incentives.

During the ceremony, seven inventors who have registered their products after the IP Incentive Policy was approved in the middle of last year were given cash incentives while others were presented with recognition certificates.

Meanwhile, Centre for Technology Transfer and Consultancy director Prof Dr Lau Seng said the recognition aimed to provide positive reinforcement to the staff to strive harder and be more productive in generating IP.

“Currently, we have a total of 26 IP registered with Intellectual Property Corporation of Malaysia (MyIPO). Among them are three patents, two Industrial Designs, one Utility Innovation, eight trademarks and 12 copyrights (software).

“We hope that more IP will be granted soon as we have 14 products undergoing novelty search and 30 products undergoing various stages of examinations.” Lau pointed out that registered IP was only the first stage of the value chain.

The Unimas IP Day showcased some highly commercialisable IP inventions from the university and interested potential investors were encouraged to contact the Unimas for more details.