By Musa Saho
The Solicitor General and Legal Secretary at the Attorney General and Ministry of Justice, Mr Hussein Thomasi has said his office is thrilled to collaborate with Gambia Technical Training Institute (GTTI) to commemorate this year’s Intellectual Property Day, which focused on youths and innovation.
The two institutions commemorated the World Intellectual Property Day on April 26th , at the Gambia Technical Training Institute (GTTI) complex in Old Jeshwang.
The event was graced by officials from the Ministry of Justice, National Intellectual Property Council, students and Management of GTTI and the National Center for Arts and Culture.
The World Intellectual Property Day is celebrated annually around the world in April of every year since 2000. This year’s theme is “IP and Youth: Innovating for a better future”.
Mr. Thomasi said the celebration of World IP Day 2022 is to raise awareness on parental guidance, copyrights, trademarks and designs transform lives and livelihood.
“Innovation cannot strive without the involvement of the youths, it’s the youths who have to inspire to use their ingenuity and creativity and bring changes needed to move into a more sustainable future,” he said.
He opined that Intellectual Property Rights can help young people transform their dreams into reality and enable them to significantly contribute to the national development.
The Solicitor General, therefore calls on the young people to take this opportunity to reflect and further explore how Intellectual Property Rights can help meet their goals, create jobs, generate income and transform lives.
The head of Intellectual Property Office, Mr. Abdoulie Colley said the statistics on innovation and creativity in The Gambia is not so impressive and GTTI being one of the excellent institutions for higher learning should encourage and inspire youths to innovate and create, in order to harness the economic benefit of Intellectual Property.
Mr. Colley further challenged the youths and GTTI management to register a patent or at least a utility model, which is more appropriate for the Gambia by the next IP Day.
He concluded by encouraging the youths to utilise their energy level, curiosity and resourcefulness to create and innovate for a better and prosperous Gambia.