The precursor of the Directorate of Intellectual Property Management and University-Industry Liaison (DIPUIL) was the University-Industry Liaison Office (UILO) created on August 05, 2010 under the Vice Chancellor’s office. UILO had a singular mandate to address some gaps that had been identified as impediments to effective relationships between the University, Industry and the national economy. Among the gaps was the ineffective flow of knowledge generated in the university into the economy to promote a knowledge driven economy. The other gap was lack of a channel through which the industry and public authorities could access expertise in any particular area or a person to contact for help with a specific problem.
UILO was thus tasked among other things to establish an Intellectual Property (IP) Office to provide for a channel through which inventions and knowhow could reach the society and industry for commercial exploitation and economic growth.
However, visits to Universities in the developed world revealed that Intellectual Property and University-Industry liaison matters were managed together under what are known as technology transfer offices (TTO). Therefore, the idea of creating a separate IP office was dropped and a more effective vehicle to sharpen the university’s role in the society as stipulated in its Charter proposed. Consequently, DIPUIL was created on 1st April 2014.
The directorate consists of two sections, i.e., Intellectual Property Management and University-Industry Liaison.