Margibi County Senator Jim Tornolah urges Liberian artist to maximize their God- given talents, if they are to succeed.
“With a cause of maximizing your talent, it gives the concept to believe that talent comes from God; man cannot give you talent; many can only capacitate you, education will capacitate you as well.”
Speaking on the topic, “Maximizing your talent” at the Barrack Young Controller or BYC Sport pitch in Monrovia during observance of World International Property Day over the weekend, he said the day gives an insight of creativity with reference to intellectual development, stressing, “We have the privilege to call on every artist to maximize their talent.
The day was celebrated under the auspices of the Liberia Intellectual Property Office or LIPO with the theme: “Reach for Gold IP& Sport.”
It brought together members of the creative sector, including musicians and movies producers, among others.
Senator Tornolah explains that talent is something that is planted within a person, saying, “The more you create an effort in maximizing, it creates in you a sense of direction, which way to move.”
He says talent is connected to vision. “If you have a vision, it should match your talent, and you can’t have a vision that is opposite to [your] talent, because if you have a vision that’s opposite to a talent, such individuals won’t be successful.”
Senator Tornolah continues, “Once your vision is in line with a talent, it creates an opportunity for the achievement of goals, I have come to realize today, many young people have not been able to read their value system and ask themselves what am I capable of doing?”
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He points out that if young people will sit and evaluate themselves, they will realize that no one came into the world with an empty head and “Everyone has one talent or another.”
At the same time the Director General of LIPO Attorney Adelyn Cooper, in her IP Day message notes that in previous years people only thought on sport as the only creativity, but later did they know that there were additional things behind sports, including technologies, design, trademark, branding, and copyrights.
She says it was from those things that the world Intellectual Property decided to give this year’s celebration the theme; Reach for Gold IP& Sport.
“Some of us watch football games, and we did not know that the jersey generates revenues because of the creativity, and innovation of those that produced the jersey.” She explains that all those things are brand, and that’s why intellectual property is so much imbedded into sports.
Meanwhile, the president of the Movies Union of Liberia Frank Artus expresses delight over the celebration, but emphasizes there is more work to do. We should go beyond just a celebration; we all want to see good come out of the creative sector of this country”, he adds.
“We should also focus on our talent, because it comes from God, like the guest speaker said; if we have a vision that is opposite to our talent then we won’t realize our goal.”
The Liberia Intellectual Property Office or LIPO is a governmental institution with a mandate to protect and promote works of inventors and innovators through the Industrial Property laws of Liberia in collaboration with conventions, protocols and treaties relative to intellectual property rights protection to which Liberia is signatory.
Part of LIPO function is also to assure that all invented works; innovative works are registered and protected at the advantage of their owners, ensure the owners of such works benefit justly from their sales, ensure that government benefits from tax deduction of royalties earned from the sale of such works.
The Industrial Property Office (IPO) further registers and protects patents, trademarks, service names, industrial designs, traditional knowledge (herb, etc.) geographic indications encourage quality control and fair competition in the sale of copyright products and services.
LIPO began the celebration with a parade before convening at the BYC Sport pitch to climax the day’s activities with kickball and football matches. By Lewis S. Teh–Editing by Jonathan Browne
