National University of Lesotho (NUL) participated in a seminar on Intellectual Property that took place from the 23rd to the 25th February, 2022 at Thaba Bosiu Cultural Village. The Seminar was organized by the office of the Registrar General from the Ministry of Law and Justice, African Region Intellectual Property Organisation (ARIPO) as well as NUL. This Seminar was supposed to have been hosted in November, 2021 at NUL Roma campus, but due to COVID regulations, it had to be postponed to 2022.
ARIPO partners with the universities to conduct this type of Seminar in intellectual property within the institutions. The purpose of the Seminar is to enhance IP awareness among staff and students in order to promote, protect utilize research outputs using the intellectual tools. The targeted audience consist of the researchers, academics, administrators, librarians, senior students and all interested staff members.
In his welcome remarks, NUL Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Isaac Olusola Fajana, thanked God for the distinguished gathering and welcomed the rich diversity of experts and administrators, the National University of Lesotho, and participants from the Mountain Kingdom and from elsewhere.
“I welcome you to the Premier Entrepreneurship University in Southern Africa, the NUL. This indeed is a glorious gathering of royalty, seasoned academics and administrators”, Prof Fajana stated.
He indicated that the opening ceremony marked the commencement of the Roving Seminar by the African Regional Intellectual Property Organisation (ARIPO) and the National University of Lesotho is delighted to be chosen for this edition of the seminar on intellectual property. Also, considering the fact it is the first time that ARIPO, Office of the Registrar General and NUL are collaborating on this type of project.
Prof Fajana further mentioned that the African University System suffers a frictional communication challenge and the potential users of research products are unaware of university-based innovations.
“The NUL Intellectual Property Policy provides structures and processes for commercialization of our patents and other intellectual property. I encourage you all present here particularly the executives of ARIPO to visit the NUL Campus, especially the NUL Innovation Hub which is the premier business incubation hub in Southern Africa with the support from both the Government of Lesotho and the private sector”, Prof Fajana announced.
He recapped and reminded the guests that during the early period of Corona Virus in 2020, a team of researchers from the NUL came up with a remedy for treating covid-19. He emphasized that this project which caught the attention of African governments and scientists now requires more funding to assist with more testing and clinical trials.
“We would want to solicit the support of ARIPO in whatever capacity to further promote this innovation, which remains a potential source of pride to Africa”, Prof. Fajana pleaded.
He expressed hope that the event will significantly assist NUL to consolidate on progress and gains with the management of ARIPO and NUL researchers should be able to find liaison for commercialising their research findings thus freeing some of their time in order to concentrate on their researches with the satisfaction that the university would find buyers for their innovations.
In his concluding remarks, Prof. Fajana pleaded and asked for more collaboration with other institutions of higher learning to work with ARIPO on this Intellectual Property issue.
