Deputy Minister Urges Patent Registration to Safeguard Innovations at National TVET Competition

ALOR GAJAH – Participants of the National TVET Innovation Competition were strongly encouraged to register copyrights or patents for their inventions to protect intellectual property and boost the competitiveness of local innovations.

Deputy Higher Education Minister Adam Adli Abd Halim stressed that securing intellectual property rights is essential to ensure innovations receive proper protection and to facilitate opportunities for commercialization.

“Awareness of patents needs to be maintained at a high level. Once an idea is developed, the next step is to patent it, so it becomes the innovator’s intellectual property,” Adam Adli said during a press briefing following the competition’s closing ceremony at Masjid Tanah Community College.

He clarified that patenting an innovation does not restrict its use solely to the inventor but rather preserves the value and competitiveness of the innovation in the marketplace.

The competition, themed ‘Agentic AI in Innovation,’ served as a platform to catalyze the development of artificial intelligence (AI)-based innovations, according to the Deputy Minister.

He noted that participants demonstrated a growing understanding of AI applications in addressing real-world challenges, citing as an example a rail passenger density monitoring system developed during the event, which holds potential for further refinement and adoption by industry players.

“We hope participants will continue protecting their innovations through intellectual property registration and foster industry collaboration to open up commercialization opportunities for developed ideas,” Adam Adli added.

The event highlighted the intersection of technology, innovation, and intellectual property rights as key drivers for advancing Malaysia’s competitive edge in the evolving digital economy.