KULAI, Aug 25 — The Johor state government aims to increase intellectual property creation and ownership by creating downstream companies, empowering techno-entrepreneurial activity in the state.

State investment, entrepreneur development, cooperative and human resource committee chairman Mohd Izhar Ahmad said to realise the target, Johor entreprenuers are encouraged to produce innovations and be competitive.

He said as of July 30 this year, there are 2,984 downstream companies in Johor.

Mohd Izhar expressed hope the two-day Intellectual Property Commercialisation programme which began yesterday, as part of a strategic collaboration between the Malaysian Technology Development Corporation (MTDC) and Perbadanan Usahawan Johor Sdn Bhd (PUJB), would be a catalyst for the creation of intellectual property

"According to the Malaysian Intellectual Property Corporation (MyIPO), a total of 20,539 local patent applications and 156,562 foreign patent applications nationwide were recorded from 1986 until June 2020,” he said in his speech at the programme here today.

Also present was MTDC chief executive officer Datuk Norhalim Yunus.

"The state government hopes this kind of commercialisation programme will help Johor entrepreneurs to increase local patent applications after the sharing and transfer of knowledge and expertise in technology and intellectual property commercialisation to these entrepreneurs are implemented,” he said.

He said the programme also aims to guide and advise local companies involved in intellectual property and technology commercialisation via the incubation and accelerator programme.

"I see this programme can increase the commercialisation rate of the state’s intellectual property and increase the number of tech entrepreneurs in Johor who are skilled in new technologies,” he said.

Under the programme, in which 80 entrepreneurs from the state participated, five selected companies would undergo an incubation programme for six months while another 10 companies would receive guidance from mentors and experts in their respective fields for two months.

The programme included a workshop on intellectual property commercialisation, the evaluation and diagnosis process, as well as the technology transfer and commercialisation process. — Bernama