Commissioner of Sri Lanka Inventors Commission Cyril Suduwella

The country marked another ‘World Creativity and Innovations Day’ on April 21 with a firm resolution to do better in the year ahead. Of course, we can be proud of our achievements but can we afford to rest on our laurels when the world constantly looks for new solutions to its unending problems?

The Daily Mirror spoke to the Commissioner of the Sri Lanka Inventors Commission Cyril Suduwella for his views on the role of the Commission in supporting the state in its journey towards achieving excellence in the creative sphere.

Q  How do you see creative ideas taking form and growing into strong enterprises? 

The Sri Lanka Inventors Commission currently operating under the purview of the Ministry of Education is at the forefront of bringing out the innovative capabilities of the nation which has made  noteworthy progress in the sphere of innovations across all sectors of the economy. The Commission was established by the Sri Lanka Inventors Incentives Parliament Act. No. 53 of 1979.It was a concept of the visionary  leader  Minister Lalith Athulathmudali. The main objective of setting up the Commission was to promote Sri Lankan inventions and innovations by providing technical, financial, and legal assistance to local inventors and innovators. 
The Commission encourages and promotes creative ideas of every segment of the society. As per the provisions of the Act, the Commission  supports inventors who have already filed patent rights for pending patents. Converting potential creative ideas into innovations is important. Thereby innovations  can be patented and converted into Intellectual Property (IP) assets. Some of the initiatives carried out by the Commission to convert creative ideas into IP assets and create an innovative culture in the country are:

  
Conducting programmes and workshops to raise awareness among people on the importance of inventions and innovations for the economy. 
Conduct mini-exhibitions in schools. 
Hold patent workshops. 
Conduct teacher-training programmes with the Ministry of Education. 
Holding the “Sahasak Nimewum” exhibition for innovations. 
Converting the “Sahasak Nimewum” initiative into an international event. 
Support from the Commission: 
Technical and financial support to file patent figures. 
Technical support for prototype development and  third-party certification through the incubator facility. 
Commercialization support. 
We have supported and converted inventions into enterprises. 
A tailor-made programme targeting various segments. For ex:- The“Inventor Champ” – with “Shardha Media” 

Q  Access to funding has been a major issue for SMEs and startups to develop. What are your views and suggestions on this?

 Access to funding has been a major issue for SMEs/startups to develop. In general, entrepreneurs have to take risks to achieve success in the commercialization journey. The process of converting inventions into innovations and achieving  success in commercialization is a tough task. However, inventors enjoy benefits such as (secured IP rights), a market monopoly for 20 years and creating a unique market as it is a novel product to the world. There is a major demand for non-tangible assets in countries like the USA which generates more than 30% of the revenue from IP assets and similarly a majority of developed countries generate a significant percentage of revenue from non-tangible assets. Earlier the Commission had financial schemes to assist the inventors’ fund and the innovator accelerator. Now the Commission has a special financial support mechanism for inventors from this year onwards. But due to various reasons and budget limitations and also to assure a sound return on investments to the country we are now proposing a new financial scheme to support local inventions.

Q  The ‘digital divide’ between rural and urban masses exists due to the high cost of broadband usage. What is your take on it and has the Commission taken up this matter with policymakers? 

Yes. A technology gap exists but when it comes to inventions and innovations it  may not be the case always. We agree with you that technology is  part and parcel of our lives and it plays a pivotal role in every sector. The ‘digital divide’ between urban and rural masses exists but in the case of inventions and innovation there isn’t a wide gap. Most of the work of inventors is aimed at addressing certain issues in society. The good side of it is when you come up with a solution on a commercial scale you have a market for your product. In 2016 with the intervention of the present Minister of Education Susil Premajayantha who was then the  Minister of Science and Technology and the approval of the Cabinet October 26 was declared National Inventors’ Day. We are planning to recognize and reward inventors who performed well in  2023.