By Modupe Oluremi
The Ondo State Coordinating Office of the Raw Materials Research and Development Council (RMRDC) has conducted a capacity-building training on Intellectual Property (IP) rights aimed at strengthening staff competence and improving the Council’s research and innovation output.
The training, held recently, was organized as part of the Council’s efforts to deepen understanding of intellectual property management among staff and reinforce its strategic importance to RMRDC’s mandate of promoting value addition and industrial development through locally sourced raw materials.
The programme was facilitated by the State Coordinator, Mrs. Folasade A. Tejumola, and served as a follow-up cascading exercise to the South-West Zonal Intellectual Property training earlier facilitated by the Director of the Directorate of Legal and Board Services (DLBS). Barr. Keshi Ngozi. The zonal training laid the foundation for strengthening intellectual property awareness and compliance across state offices.
In her opening remarks, Mrs. Tejumola urged staff to approach the new year with renewed dedication and a determination to surpass previous performance levels. She emphasized that excellence, innovation, and knowledge sharing remain central to the Council’s operational effectiveness.
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She explained that the training became necessary following strategic guidance and directives issued during the South-West Coordinators’ Intellectual Property training held on November 20, 2025, at the RMRDC Lagos State Office. At the meeting, State Coordinators were tasked with domesticating and cascading IP knowledge within their respective offices to strengthen institutional capacity nationwide.
During the session, participants were introduced to key categories of intellectual property, including patents, utility models, industrial designs, copyrights, trademarks, trade secrets, and geographical indications. The training emphasized that intellectual property remains one of RMRDC’s core deliverables and a critical indicator of institutional performance, a position strongly reinforced during the earlier train-the-trainer zonal IP programme.
A major highlight of the training was the disclosure of RMRDC’s strategic target to expand its patent portfolio from the current 47 to 200 patents within four years. Staff were therefore encouraged to serve as frontline IP identifiers by ensuring the early detection, proper documentation, and timely escalation of potential innovations to the Directorate of Legal and Board Services for protection.
The programme further highlighted the responsibilities of State Offices in identifying intellectual property at various stages of project execution, preserving novelty, and supporting the Council’s efforts to build a robust and sustainable IP portfolio nationwide, in line with best-practice standards and procedural guidance provided by DLBS.
In his closing remarks, Chief Scientific Officer Mr. Idowu Akeem commended participants for their active engagement throughout the training and encouraged them to apply the knowledge gained to strengthen intellectual property identification, documentation, and protection in their daily work.
The training underscores RMRDC’s continued commitment to human capital development and reinforces the Ondo State Coordinating Office’s readiness to contribute meaningfully to the Council’s national innovation and industrialization agenda in 2026 and beyond.
