SCIENCE and technology is a driving force which enables the manufacturing
and production sectors to meet the needs of society, Minister
of the Prime Minister’s Office, Brigadier-General Pyi Sone,
said late last month.
“It is of utmost importance to develop technological know-how
and keep abreast with changes throughout the world,” he
said.
Brigadier-General Pyi Sone was speaking at the Ministry of Science
and Technology at the opening ceremony for a series of training
courses held to promote understanding of the patent law provisions
of intellectual property legislation to be introduced by 2006.
The three training courses, which were held over five days and
ended on April 29, were jointly organised by the ministry and
the Geneva-based World Intellectual Property Organisation.
The ministry hosted two of the courses. They were for government
officials and students conducting research at institutions under
the ministry. The other course, for members of the private sector,
was held at MICT Park.
The head of industrial property information services for developing
countries at the WIPO, Dr José Luis Herce, addressed course
participants on patent registration procedures, industrial applications
for inventions and using the internet to find patent information.
The participants conducted exercises involving database searches
of registered inventions using a patent information website, ep.espacenet.
com.
Accessing information from the websites would ensure that innovators
did not waste their time on inventions that had already been patented,
said an assistant director at the ministry’s ASEAN-WIPO
section, Dr Hnin Nwe Aye.
The information would also help inventors to develop advanced
versions of products or processes that had been patented, she
said.
“If we don’t use this information, there would be
a possibility of duplicating inventions that are already patented,
which would be a waste of time, money and effort,” Dr Hnin
Nwe Aye said.
She said the first training course at the ministry, on April
25 and 26, was attended by about 200 public servants, while more
than 220 masters degree and doctoral candidates attended the second,
from April 28 to 29.
About 100 people, including representatives of small and medium
enterprises and inventors, attended the course held for the private
sector at MICT Park on April 27.
Myanmar, which became a member of WIPO in 2001, is in the final
stage of drafting laws covering patents, industrial designs, trademarks
and copyrights to protect intellectual property rights.
The laws are being drafted to implement an agreement on the
Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights signed by
WIPO and the World Trade Organisation in 1994.
Myanmar is required to introduce the laws by 2006.
