Sunday April 29, 2012

Intellectual property can be used as collateral soon

KUANTAN: A valuation system is being drawn up to allow intellectual property (IP) to be used as collateral for business development soon.

Domestic Trade, Cooperatives and Consumerism Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob said although IPs were a new source of income generation for the country, these had yet to be accepted as collateral by financial institutions.

“This is important because this type of financing plays a big part in business development. The Government realises this situation and is in talks with agencies to form an intellectual property valuation model for this purpose,” he said after the launch of the National Intellectual Property Day here yesterday.

Ismail Sabri added that the model, which would make it easier for the exploitation of IPs from lab to market, would benefit their owners.

“We hope financial institutions will support this initiative,” he said.

Developed countries, he added, already had IP valuation systems, which allowed properties such as films and songs to be used as collateral because of the value tagged to them. “It is still very early for us.”

Pahang Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Adnan Yaakob, who launched the event, urged IP owners to register their products in order to avoid these from being copied by others.

“Without registration, the products will be exposed to copycat risks by irresponsible parties. This will cause great loss to owners and their businesses,” he said.

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