World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Nigeria, in collaboration with the Nigeria Copyright Commission (NCC), is strengthening small and medium local fashion and crafts businesses by inducting their intangible assets into Intellectual Property (IP).
In an event closing the pilot phase of the project titled ‘IP For SMEs In The Indigenous Fashion & Craft Industries In Nigeria’, 22 SMEs dealing in ‘Adire’ (southwest), ‘leather’ (north) and ‘raffia’ products (south-east and south-south) were key beneficiaries of the seven month-long-project.
The project aimed at helping businesses protect and leverage the unique values of their creations to promote their products globally.
Beneficiaries were trained on the importance of IP. With their unique ideas, designs and products patented, trademarked or copyrighted, they now have the right to set boundaries around their usage or exclusive use, demand royalties, and reserve the right of acknowledgement from potential users.
Speaking to LEADERSHIP at the event, Director WIPO Nigeria, Oluwatobiloba Moody, said ownership goes beyond tangible assets such as land or office space to intangible assets.
“What IP does, in a business space, is to give one the ability to take control of the intangible assets that one is developing as part of his/her business. We are trying to spotlight those intangible assets and say, “This is how you can draw the boundary of ownership over others, leverage that, commercialise it if you want to, or at least be recognised for it. And that is the foundation of building a society that works for local people.”
A brainchild of IP expert and former Director of NCC IP Academy, Mike Akpan, the project aimed at revitalising local fashion and crafts on the verge of extinction and helping the creators understand the value and worth of their creations.
“It appeared to me that one of the significant obstacles to broadening the scope of these industries and making them more global was the absence of an IP platform. If we can get them to realise the dynamic nature of the IP and how it could leverage their businesses for global competitiveness, perhaps the companies can go beyond their natal environment.
“While some of them have gained global prominence, the returns were not forthcoming owing to the lack of the IP that would have brought in those returns.”
With the success of the pilot phase, Akpan charts two ways forward – more actions to formalise the identified groups in the sector to ensure proper documentation, in addition to the adoption of a formal framework to assist them as collectives, and taking the programme beyond the current 22 SMEs, to ensure that as many local creative businesses benefit from the positive value of the IP,” said Akpan.
For Moody, it is about accelerating the work to a much broader national project such that WIPO can work with state governments to expand the project beyond the three industries and across Nigeria.
“We started small and used this to test the waters. We had to tweak some aspects of our model because of the unique nature of the subjects we were working with. We have garnered key evidence and lessons from this project to help us scale. We have received requests today to expand the project across the country.”
Meanwhile, the NCC has conferred an award on the artiste and founder of the Nike Galleries and Nike Foundation, Dr Nike Okundaye-Davis, for her contributions to empowering women mompreneurs to obtain IP.
