Kazakhstan among most inventive countries

Kazakhstan is the most inventive country in the world: 30 000 inventions were patented in the last 20 years alone, Abzal Yestayev chairman of the Intellectual Property Law Committee of the Justice Ministry told Tengrinews.kz. “About 30 thousand patents have been issued to the citizens of Kazakhstan over the past 20 years of Kazakhstan's independence. However, many patents have already expired. An innovation patent term is limited to three years,” Yestayev said on the sidelines of a round-table discussion dedicated to improvement of Kazakhstan’s Intellectual Property Law. “Taking into account the number of our population, our scientific potential is no worse than those of Russia or Japan. Kazakhstan is one of the world leaders by the number of inventions.” The inventions of Kazakhstan’s originators are mostly concerned with chemistry, agriculture and metallurgy that are the leading fields of industry in Kazakhstan. In most cases the scientists make their researches on the base of research and development institutes that are funded from the state budget. Private investors are much less eager to invest in Kazakhstan’s inventors. According to Yestayev, one Kazakhstan’s inventor can register an unlimited number of inventions. “Last year we awarded 80-y.o. inventor with Blinov’s Medal (Fyodor Blinov (1827–1902) was the Russian inventor who introduced one of the first tracked vehicles in 1877 (patented in 1879). His self-propelled crawler was successfully tested and presented at a farmer's exhibition in 1896.) This inventor has got about 100 inventions, scientific researches and copyright certificates. We have a number of inventors who keep getting such awards. Kazakhstan has a great inventing potential and I think it will keep growing,” the Committees chairman said. By Gulnara Zhandagulova