The Liberia Intellectual Property Office (LIPO) has vowed to restore the lost hope of musical artists, inventors and other individuals that are involved in artistical works here.Addressing a news conference Tuesday, 11 December at her office on Capitol Hill, LIPO Director General Mrs. Adelyn Cooper announced the pending launch of LIPO’s official website and Newsletter.
“The website portal is intended to protect local innovation, invention, creators, and users of IP rights,” she says.She calls it a great initiative undertaken by LIPO to promote, safeguard and create awareness about intellectual property (IP).
According to her, the website which is due to be launched on Friday, 14 December at the Liberia Chambers of Commerce will contain features for IP online registration, IP database and the country’s 2016 IP Law.
“This step will positively impact the IP ecosystem of Liberia, and it is a step forward in educating the future vigilant, and responsible citizens of the country about their rights and their potential to explore the power of IP at its best,” she says.
The LIPO Director General further indicates that the move to transition from paper to online registration comes with lots of benefits which includes enhancing and fast-tracking IP registration process and the online database that will handle the publication of IP titles for the public.
Madam Cooper says the IP database will serve multiple purposes including IP research and IP rights protection.
She says they have embarked on a lot of ICT projects to provide time-saving IP business processing, support the availability of IP information, to encourage IP rights protection and to create a functional and sustainable IP property system in Liberia.
According to her, LIPO is an embodiment of the erstwhile Liberia Industrial Property and the Liberia Copyright Offices.The office is responsible for the formulation of policies on intellectual property rights and/or intellectual property regulations.
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These include granting applications for patents including utility models, copyright/related rights, trademarks, industrial designs, geographical indications; and layout-designs (topographies) of integrated circuits, among others.
By Lewis S. Teh –Edited by Winston W. Parley
