By:
Nana Appiah Acquaye
Ethiopia’s
Minister of Innovation and Technology, Frehiwot Tamru, has directed the
Ethiopian Intellectual Property Authority to go beyond registration and
actively support the transformation of creativity, inventive breakthroughs and
research findings into practical solutions, economic value and public benefit.
The
Minister gave the directive during a visit to the Authority, where she
emphasised the need to strengthen its role in supporting innovation and
ensuring that intellectual property contributes to economic development.
Tamru
called for stronger partnerships among innovators, universities, industry,
investors and financial institutions, alongside the development of legal
frameworks that enable innovation financing.
She
also directed the Authority to advance the end-to-end digital delivery of its
services and establish robust legal safeguards and protection for Ethiopian
brands.
The
Minister stressed the importance of nurturing citizens’ creative capacity and
independent innovative mindsets while preparing for the Artificial Intelligence
(AI) era.
She
underscored that, alongside effective registration and rights protection, the
Authority’s ultimate success must be measured by innovations deployed into
practice, productivity gains achieved and viable employment opportunities
created.
