Laos wins gold, silver medals at inventors' contest

Laos wins gold, silver medals at inventors' contest

Lao women won one gold and three silver medals for three inventions exhibited at the 6th Korean International Women's Invention Exposition (KIWIE) 2013 held in Seoul, Republic of Korea, from May 1-4.

Ms Souvita Paseuth ( front, left ) and Ms Phanla ( front, right ) are photographed with officials at the press conference.

The gold medal went to Ms Souvita Paseuth for her creative scarf invention called ‘Wave of the Mekong' and her scarf was also awarded one of the silver medals. Other silver medals went to Dr Vilayvanh Phimmasone for her invention of a mobile loom and to Ms Phanla for her fabric invention of ‘Elephants in a Flower Garden'.

“This is a historic achievement in that our association took the inventions of some Lao women to showcase at the international exposition and they came away with these excellent awards.

Today we would like to inform as many people as possible and inspire all Lao women, especially the younger ones, who have a creative idea to develop it and participate in this exposition,” President of the Lao Business Women's Association (LBWA), Ms Chanthao Pathammavong, said at a press conference in Vientiane yesterday at the Lao Journalists' Association.

She said there were six inventions from Laos in total and out of these only three did not receive an award.

As everyone knows, women form an equal part in the drive for economic and national development and many of their previous inventions have been very creative. Throughout the world there have been many things invented by women which have proved to be commercially successful but so often, mainly through a lack of understanding, they haven't been properly protected by patent or copyright leading to the invention being taken over by a factory which generates a good business that the inventor doesn't benefit from.

“Because of this, the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) encourages each country to develop its own network. More specifically, in Korea there is the Korean Women Inventors' Association and the Women's University, who support the fight against plagiarism,” Ms Chanthao noted.

She said that for this exposition the Lao Women's Union assigned the LBWA to choose inventors from among its members to attend the event.

As well as having demonstrations of the various inventions, there was also a seminar in which ideas and experiences could be shared between the participants from 30 countries. This was the first time that women from Laos had taken part in the event.

The purpose of KIWIE is to raise people's awareness about women's inventive activities and expand the base for women inventors, promoting an exchange among them at home and abroad, building an international network, and encouraging the distribution of women's outstanding inventions.

The event was hosted by the Korean Intellectual Property Office and organised by the Korean Women Inventors' Association.

By Times Reporters (Latest Update May 15, 2013)

source: vientianetimes.org.la