The Liberia Intellectual Property Office (LIPO) has organized a one-day seminar for over 100 students to enhance their understanding of intellectual property and to foster creativity among them.
LIPO Acting Director General, Theresa S. Thomas.
This one-day seminar was held at the Paynesville Community Public School on Friday and brought together 11 schools.
LIPO Acting Director General, Theresa S. Thomas in a press release explained that such seminar is critical to the agency goal of making Liberia a knowledge base country.
Madam Thomas added that educating students about intellectual property (IP) is significant because it ensures that they understand how ideas are recognized and protected which motivates them to explore their creativity.
Students posed for a photograph
“Students understanding of IP related issue is key to the development of Liberia in this fast-growing knowledge base. Research has shown that the better the students understanding of IP, the greater the chances for them to participate in a global economy that is increasingly driven by intellectual property.
“In today’s digitized world, which depends on inventiveness and creativity, it is important that Liberian students are equipped with the knowledge they need to make Liberia a knowledge base country to bring about that huge economic growth to take our country out of poverty,” she added.
Hon. Thomas added in the absence of IP knowledge, they will not be able to rip the benefit from their creations; thus, discourage them to not go forward in exploring their creativity.
“We cannot compete in this 21st century, the age of intellectual creation if our students and teachers lack the basic knowledge about IP. Also, this seminar is intended to educate them about piracy, its effects and to encourage them to stop purchasing or downloading the illegal product,” she noted.
She added that the Paynesville seminar is the beginning of a nationwide students’ engagement programs which focus on three thematic topics: “Piracy, copyrights and related rights and industrial property.
“One of the greatest benefits of this nationwide seminar is that it encourages students to support legitimate work and stop engaging in any forms of piracy because they are feature creators too,” Hon. Thomas said.
Surprise S. Yuan, one of the participating students from the Effort Baptist Church School described ‘the seminar as a good initiative that will motives students to explore their potential.
“As an aspiring author, this seminar has taught us lot of lessons and enhanced our understanding of IP. Now with this knowledge, we going to become goodwill ambassadors to educate the general public about IP, benefits and the negative effects of piracy,” Surprise Yuan said.
LIPO is a corporate semi-autonomous agency of the Government in the Executive Branch responsible to formulate good policies that will promote the generation, protection and enforcement of Intellectual Property materials in Liberia.
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