The National Office for Technology Acquisition and Promotion has stated that inventors of creative intellectual property can only hold exclusive rights to their works for 20 years.
After this period, the invention will be transferred to the public domain and can be used by any individual.
The Director-General of NOTAP, Obiageli Amadiobi, disclosed this at a press conference to commemorate the African Day for Technology and Intellectual Properties on Thursday in Abuja.
It was themed, “Leveraging Technology and IPRs to Drive the Renewed Hope Agenda”. This revelation emerges amid recent controversies concerning the ownership of intellectual property rights for songs by musical artists and the necessity of obtaining permission from the original artist.
She said the commemoration complies with the resolution made by the Organisation of African Unity now the African Union Council of Ministers and Assembly of Heads of State and Governments at Addis-Ababa, Ethiopia in July 1999.
The resolution was to further sensitise and facilitate the domestication of Technology and development of the Intellectual Property Rights system in African member states.
