News Flash
The Minister of Justice and Constitutional Affaires, Hon. Samuel Tembenu, Press Statement.
The Government of Malawi, through the Department of the Registrar General (DRG),
which falls under the Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs, recently signed
a Service Level Agreement (SLA) with the Director General of the World Intellectual
Property Organization (WIPO), Dr. Francis Gurry, on 4th October, 2016, at WIPO Headquarters in Geneva,
Switzerland in relation to the establishment of Technology Innovation Support Centers in Malawi (TISC).
Minister of Education Science & Technology, Dr Emmanuel Fabiano, Escorted
the Minister of Justice & Constitutional Affaires to this occasion
The WIPO Technology and Innovation Support Center (TISC) program provides innovators in developing countries with access to locally based, high quality technology information and related services, helping them to exploit their innovative potential and to create, protect, and manage their intellectual property (IP) rights. TISCs as popularly known help to stimulate innovation and economic growth by facilitating access to scientific and technological information and will therefore strengthen Malawi’s capacity to effectively exploit this information. Our innovators and researchers will benefit from having free access to over 90 million patent documents, and other technological and scientific publications and journals which they would normally have to pay expensive subscription fees to access.
Services offered by Technology Innovation Support Centres include:
1. Access to online patent and non-patent (scientific and technical) resources and IP-related publications;
2. Assistance in searching and retrieving technology information;
3. Training in database search;
4. On-demand searches (novelty, state-of-the-art and infringement);
5. Monitoring technologies and competitors; and
6. Basic information on industrial property laws, management and strategy, and technology, commercialization and marketing.
The Department of the Registrar General has therefore, in collaboration with some key stakeholders in the academia and research sector, established four (4) TISCs which are at the Malawi University of Science and Technology (MUST) in Thyolo, the University of Malawi Chancellor College in Zomba, the Mzuzu University (MZUNI) in Mzuzu and the National Commission for Science and Technology (NCST) in Lilongwe. The four institutions were chosen on the basis of their geographical location and their activities in the field of innovation, research and development.
It is worth noting that the establishment of TISCs in Malawi is in line with the mandate of the DRG which among others includes the administration of industrial property rights and the establishment of TISCs comes under Pillar 8 of the National Intellectual Property Policy and Strategy (NIPS) of the Republic of Malawi on enhancing use of IP for economic development and establishment of IP support structures.
As part of its obligations under the terms of the SLA, the Department of the Registrar General is required to conclude an Institutional Agreement with the host institutions which will formally establish the Technology Innovation Support Centre (TISC) Network in Malawi. This is the reason therefore why the Ministry is signing the SLA with these institutions. The Ministry is also mindful that it's not only these institutions that can benefit from TISCs and it is therefore planning through the DRG to roll out the project to other institutions across the country.
©2nd December, 2016
