World Intellectual Property Day: URSB encourages SMEs to Adopt Commercialisation of Innovations.

The Uganda Registration Services Bureau (URSB) has urged Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) to commercialize their innovations and creativity.

This message was made known on Monday as URSB joined the rest of the world to celebrate the World Intellectual Property Day, an annual event that provides an opportunity to learn about the role that Intellectual Property (IP) rights play in encouraging innovation and creativity. 

This year’s IP and SME’s celebration ran under the theme, “Taking your ideas to market” which portrays the mportance of intangible assets to SMEs and the value of IP in supporting SMEs to grow and exploit their potential.

In this celebration, URSB paneled representatives of the business community who shared their knowledge of how they leveraged their IP Rights to market their businesses.

The URSB Registrar General, Mercy Kainobwisho, commended URSB’s focus which not only has shifted to creation of enterprises, but also the ability of these enterprises to survive and thrive.

“It is no secret that Uganda is a very entrepreneurial country, so much so that a 2014 report by Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) ranked Uganda as the most entrepreneurial country in the world.

The same report indicated that less than 50% of those enterprises made it to the end of their second year,” Kainobwisho said at the celebrations.

Meanwhile, Kainobwisho added that URSB is at the forefront of streamlining the business registration process and in the continual development of intellectual property system, a system that offers every business the opportunity to stand out.

The URSB Board Chairman, Ambassador Francis Butagira noted that for the fact that SMEs are the foundation of Uganda’s economy, they deserve a platform that can turn their ideas into business opportunities and generate value.

“As we commemorate this world IP day, we hope this will serve as a platform to further the discussion on how intellectual property can provide first a lifeline, boost growth to our enterprises to survive and thrive during and beyond the pandemic and how through IP, value can be added to our businesses and most key to our consumers,” Butagira said.

Important to note is that SMEs account for over 90% of all companies worldwide and 70% of global employment. This provides a solid reason to celebrate their enormous contribution to the national growth and improvement in the socio-economic stature of Uganda.

In a bid to foster more support to small businesses to thrive in times when misfortunes strike, URSB will in a conference slated on Tuesday April 27 discuss a broad range of insolvency issues, offer practical experience and perspectives from diverse legal systems and traditions, and also explore ethical standards of Insolvency Practitioners.

World IP Day is celebrated all over the globe in the form of panel discussions, Radio and TV sensitization, expos, and educational outreach for students of all ages. 

This year, URSB’s panel of experts which included among others Tony Otoa, the Entreprise Development Head at Stanbic Business Incubator, John Walugembe, Executive Director of SMEs Federation—Uganda, offered practical information on the best ways SMEs can use ideas to grow their markets especially during this COVID-19 pandemic period.