Monday, September 26, 2011

Cup noodle museum an instant hit


JAPAN’s Nissin Foods opened a cup noodle museum on Sept 17 charting the history of the speedy snack where visitors even get the chance to create their own tasty version.

“We opened this place ... as a factory that gives children experience and a museum for corporate activities,” says Nissin Foods Holdings president Koki Ando.

Koki, whose late father Momofuku Ando invented instant noodles more than half a century ago, says visitors to the museum in the port city of Yokohama near Tokyo could knead flour, roll out noodles, steam and fry them to make chicken ramen which is then put into bags.

Momofuku Ando, the man credited with inventing instant noodles, took a lower-profile role in the business at the ripe old age of 95 in 2005, the year Nissin supplied vacuum packed instant noodles or “Space Ram” to a Japanese astronaut aboard a US space shuttle.

The businessman, who died of acute heart failure in 2007, was born in 1910 in Taiwan under Japanese occupation.

He entered the food business when Japan was hungry after World War II and invented the world’s first instant noodles – chicken ramen noodles sold in bags – in 1958.

Momofuku launched the cupped version in 1971 with a pre-cooked slab of noodles in a waterproof styrofoam container.

He saw his invention stocked on the shelves of convenience stores around the world. As the products were widely replicated, more than 95 billion servings were consumed around the globe in 2010, according to the Japanese instant noodles manufacturers association.

Momofuku said he was inspired to develop the product when he saw a long line of people waiting to buy soup noodles at a black market stall in post-war Japan.

“Peace prevails when food suffices,” he was quoted as saying. – AFP

Friday, September 23, 2011

DG of WIPO to Visit Malaysia on 17-18 Oct


Dr. Francis Gurry, the Director General of World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) and his staffs from WIPO are scheduled to visit Malaysia on 17-18 October 2011. MyIPO will be organising two events for the public:

1. Event : Madrid Protocol Seminar
Speaker(s) : WIPO and IP Offices
Date : 17-18 October 2011
Venue : Renaissance Hotel, Kuala Lumpur

2. Event : Public Lecture
Speaker : Dr. Francis Gurry
Date : 18 October 2011 (9.00 a.m – 11.00 a.m)
Venue : Auditorium Tun Mohamed Suffian, Law Faculty, UM

For registration and details of the above events, kindly contact MYIPO secretariat at: 03-2299 8710/8770/8753 (Madrid Protocol Seminar) or UM secretariat 03-2299 8963/8964/8962 (Public Lecture).

Thursday, September 22, 2011

Maggie Cheung on Copyright


Actress Maggie Cheung explains that copyright is essential to ensure that the work and talents of all authors are recognized. Without copyright, art itself would suffer. -WIPO