Seminar on the national network of Technology and Innovation Support Centers (TISCs)

TISCs, a gateway to the reservoir of scientific and technical knowledge maintained by the global infrastructure for intellectual property.

L’Organisation Mondiale de la Propriété Intellectuelle (OMPI) a organisé les 21 et 22 Mai un Séminaire national sur le développement  des Centres d'appui à la technologie et à l'innovation en coopération avec l’Institut National Algérien de la Propriété Industrielle (INAPI).

On May 21 and 22, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), in cooperation with the Algerian National Institute of Industrial Property (INAPI), organized a national seminar on the role played by  Technology and Innovation Support Centers.

The purpose of this seminar, bringing together more than 60 TISC coordinators from different Wilayas throughout Algeria, was to familiarize TISC officers more thoroughly with the global infrastructure for intellectual property  (IP), providing access in particular to patent and nonpatent IP resources and publications as well as training in the procedures for conducting database searches.

Researchers and inventors in developing countries are in fact often unaware of the importance, or even existence, of information on patents and innovation. And those who are aware do not always know how to use such information effectively.

This was why WIPO launched the TISC program: to enable inventors, researchers and entrepreneurs to access sound scientific and technical information and related services. These centers thus play an important role in strengthening the ecosystem for innovation and technology transfer.

Local innovators and creators gain access through the TISCs to technical information, scientific and technical literature and patent databases.

Algeria maintains Africa’s largest network of TISCs, and as governments seek to diversify their national economies, the range of services offered by these centers is valuable to researchers and inventors as well as business startups and small and medium-sized enterprises.

Thus enabled to realize their potential for innovation such businesses can contribute more to technical and economic development in their countries. TISCs are indeed a gateway to the reservoir of scientific and technical knowledge maintained by the world’s IP infrastructure -- a means for innovators and creators to strengthen local know-how, take advantage of the information available from IP databases and transform their ideas into commercial products responsive to societal needs.

The seminar was opened by Mr. Mohamed Saleck Ahmed Ethmane, Director of the WIPO External Office in Algeria, and Ms. Farida Benzadi, Director for Quality Assurance and Industrial Property in the Ministry of Industry and Pharmaceutical Production.

Opening remarks were also made by Mr. Abdelhafid Belmehdi, Director General of INAPI, and Andrew Czajkowski, Director of the WIPO Innovation and Technology Support Division.

Several experts from INAPI and WIPO contributed to the seminar.