The concept of intellectual property (IP) is often misunderstood as being just "an obscure legal concept that is of little value in everyday life," lamented Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Minister Datuk Haji Mohd Shafie Apdal on Monday.

He said the importance of IP cannot be underestimated. "IP has become one of the biggest assets for the development of any nation's economy.

"You only have to consider for a moment the value of English teaching materials and resources across the world to recognise the wealth-creating potential of knowledge and intellectual property," he said.

The Government, he said, is already promoting the IP regime in the country and pointed out that there is still "much work to be done" if we are to continue the development and generation of local intellectual property.

Today, the Malaysian Intellectual Property Corporation (MyIPO) and Microsoft Malaysia jointly organised a one-day seminar on "Strategic Management of Intellectual Property Assets" in Putrajaya. This was the first module of a 10-module strategic IP management programme aimed at senior government officials and policymakers to provide a guide on key aspects of intellectual property (IP) policy and asset management.

More than 150 participants from various government ministries, universities and government-linked companies attended the seminar, which was opened by Minister of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Datuk Shafie Apdal.

The thrust of the seminar was how IP, as a value driver, could enhance a nation's competitiveness and, therefore, needs to be managed strategically in order to tap its fullest potential. The presentations by IP professionals at the event clearly demonstrated that IP could no longer be seen as just a legal instrument but as a business asset.

Mindvault, has been battling to elevate IP to business level for some years now. So, it is a relief that at least the IP professionals are speaking the lingua franca of business now.

At the seminar, the government was urged to exploit its IP in order to generate returns and to view its IT investments as revenue and not just cost centers. Some participants felt this message was too much of a challenge as the government is not a commercial entity and has traditionally not considered exploiting its assets as a means of generating new revenue streams.

Participants who did buy into this perspective expressed concern over the "how-tos" of IP commercialisation; they lamented that there was a need for working models and practical processes to monetise these assets. Sound words, indeed.

Technology acquisition will be a crucial factor in Malaysia's biotechnology push as the country aims to derive 4-5 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP) from the sector by 2020.

Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Datuk Seri Dr Jamaludin Jarjis today said as a relatively new player, Malaysia cannot afford to depend on organic growth to fuel its biotechnology industry.

The need for a special court to hear cases involving copyright infringement is pressing, said the Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Ministry.

While hundreds have been arrested and charged for the offence, most of these cases remain backlogged in the courts, said the Ministry.

Deputy Minister S. Veerasingam said the courts favour hearing high-priority cases, and those to do with intellectual property are considered a lower priority.

Today, at a conference where I was invited to speak, I met up with a speaker from one of the local universities and we got talking about how the different local universities handled their Intellectual Property. For many universities IP is a new area and they have had to (and some are still trying to) develop in house policies and processes in how to manage and commercialise their IP. Different universities are independently developing their own approach and it struck me that there was no co-ordination and co-operation between them.

Why can't the government take the lead to have one university develop a good working approach in how to manage and commercialise their IP and then roll it out to other universities? This will result in a more consistent approach towards management and commercialisation of IP in the public universities and avoid a lot of duplication of work (if each university is to do it itself). Of course, the common approach may be tweaked by each university to best fit their institutional culture and goals.

Although there might be a sense of healthy rivalry between universities (perhaps this inhibits the co-operation?), this should be confined to the Researh & Development level. At the policy and management level relating to IP, the universities as a whole would benefit from a more unified approach rather than being fragmented as the situation now is.

The crawling pace of new patent registrations could affect Malaysia's competitiveness in the global marketplace.

More than 33,000 patent applications were filed with the Malaysian Intellectual Property Corporation from 1999 to last year, but only about a quarter have to date been approved for registration.

The current situation is at odds with the huge economic opportunities that are arising from innovation and intellectual property ownership, especially in the information technology (IT) industry.