ADDIS ABABA – Ethiopia is undertaking several activities to expedite national development by promoting innovation and entrepreneurship and protecting intellectual properties, the Ethiopian Intellectual Property Authority (EIPA) disclosed.
EIPA’s Director General, Woldu Yemsel made the above statement yesterday in his closing remark at the national intellectual property (IP) week themed: “Building Our Common Future with Innovation and Creativity”.
He said that the authority is conducting various reforms to improve intellectual property system as it has a significant contribution to ensure Ethiopia’s national technological capacity, economic, social, cultural and technological development.
As to him, his institute has been carrying out various reforms to ensure competitiveness with intellectual property on the international stage. Conducting legal reforms, expanding digitalization service, increasing public awareness about IP, and building human resource are the major areas where EIPA is working to promote IP in Ethiopia.
He noted that the authority is administering copyrights, patents, and trademarks while it is striving for indigenous knowledge protection.
The recent ratification of the Paris Industrial Property Agreement and the Madrid International Trademark Registration Protocol by the House of Peoples Representatives is a step forward for the sector’s growth, he indicated.
Mentioning the significance of promoting intellectual property to encourage innovation and job creation, the Director General stated that small and medium enterprises (SMEs) have created over 600 million jobs across the globe, sharing 70 % to 90% GDP in South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, and the likes.
In Ethiopia, Woldu said that there are merely 25,000 SMEs even their product is not marketed well due to some gaps. Therefore, a lot of activities are remained to be done to make these enterprises competitive in IP at the global level. He also mentioned that China has 46 million patents of IP. However, Ethiopia has registered merely 500 in the past two decades, of which, the majorities are owned by foreigners.
BY MESERET BEHAILU
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD SATURDAY 9 NOVEMBER 2024
