Africa-Press – Uganda. The creative industry in Uganda have been advised that they must become increasingly aware of the legal remedies to enable them benefit from the commercialization and protection of their works.Innovator is a person who introduces new methods, ideas or products. Modern businesses grow and succeed in today’s corporate climate for a myriad of different reasons. Some are known for their products, others for their services, and others still for less easily defined factors such as strong brand loyalty or captivated campaigns.Over the weekend, Uganda Registration Services Bureau (URSB), the country’s national intellectual property hosted an expert panel discussion under the theme:“Innovation during a Pandemic; The need to protect your Inventions”.In her opening remarks, the Registrar General, Mercy Kainobwisho said: “The growth of our economy is partly dependent on the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise(MSME) sector, and together with government, URSB has been taking all necessary measures to spread awareness on the significance of intellectual property rights in protecting and monetizing our creative inventions.”With multiple businesses and the overall economy brought to a slowdown by the global spread of Covid-19, inventors and creators across various industries are, however, facing never-seen-before barriers and disruptions when it comes to launching their new products or services, and how to protect them from being duplicated or infringed upon.During the webinar, intellectual property experts took time to reflect on the values of protecting inventions and discussed ways in which businesses can work to protect their brands. They also shared observations from the ongoing disruptions and explored creations protection and regulatory strategies for businesses to consider.Dr Anthony Kakooza, a leading IP Academic & Lawyer led the discussion together with Mr James Tonny Lubwama, Manager for Patents & Industrial Designs at URSB.On his part, Dr Kakooza said the role of IP in enabling innovation during this worldwide crisis cannot be understated pointing out that in Uganda, small and medium enterprises have been the driving force behind many innovations.“Successful SMEs have been able to reinforce ideas to create products that consumers want, utilized IP rights to protect them and created value for their business. Underlining the inherent innovative abilities of our creative sector must be encouraged and supported to increasingly adapt IP in business operations, especially considering the emerging technological developments. This will give them the edge to commercialise their work while protecting them,” he said.Mr Lubwama on his part said protection of innovations would encourage more inventors to works towards solving some of issues from the pandemic crisis.“Trademark registrations are often indicative of future business success, establishing standout brands and underlining their distinctiveness in the marketplace. Industries that make intensive use of trademarks are the reason IP applications at URSB have been on the increase for the last two years. We encourage more innovators to come to us for protection,” Mr Lubwama told [email protected]
