The Nigerian Copyright Commission is pleased to join the global intellectual property (IP) commuity in celebrating this year’s World Intellectual Property Day and focus on the theme: “IP and the SDGs: Building Our Common Future with Innovation and Creativity”. This underscores the power of innovation and creativity in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and shaping a sustainable and inclusive future for humanity.
The SDGs represent a universal call to action to end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure prosperity for all by the year 2030. IP rights play a pivotal role in fostering innovation, creativity, and technological advancements. They provide the framework that encourages men and women to develop new solutions that address global challenges. It is the lynchpin for incentivizing the use of creative and innovative ideas to solve many of the challenges that confront humanity.
This year’s World IP Day reminds us that intellectual property can be a powerful tool for social, economic, and environmental development. It encourages individuals, businesses, and governments to leverage IP rights to drive innovation, create jobs, and build resilient communities. By aligning our intellectual property policies and strategies with the objectives of the SDGs, we can accelerate their achievement.
Nigeria is already taking steps to finalize its National Intellectual Property Policy and Strategy which would serve as a blueprint for a more efficient modern and responsive legal and administrative framework for the country to leverage on its creative and innovative potentials.
In the spirit of the renewed hope agenda of this administration, Government has also shown appreciable commitment to the creative industry as a major sector of the economy. As one of the agencies responsible for the wholesome development of the creative sector, the Nigerian Copyright Commission will continue to provide the needed institutional, legal and administrative support for the protection, promotion, regulation and enforcement of copyright as one of the pillars for a prosperous.
In addressing the intersection between IP and the SDGs. The Commission will pay particular attention to using the copyright system to advance Goal 1 (No poverty); Goal 4 (Quality education); Goal 5 (Gender equality); Goal 8 (Decent and economic growth); Goal 9 (Industry, innovation and infrastructure) and Goal 17 (Partnerships to achieve the goals). We are aware that the goals would have to be adapted to fit the peculiar needs of intellectual property which is an intangible asset.
Finally, as we focus on the 17 SDGs to address today’s challenges, I call on authors, innovators, users, IP experts and other stakeholders to also reflect on the vulnerability of our fragile knowledge and creative ecosystem. We should be concerned about its sustainable development in the face of disruptive technologies such as Artificial Intelligence which are fast changing our understanding of authorship and how we use the works of authors leaving us with a future of new possibilities.
Thank you.