Arab Patent Office is a Solution to Promote Innovation-Yung
13 Jun 2004CAIRO- A unified approach towards establishing an Arab Patent Office is the only solution to support the Intellectual Property (IP) system and to promote innovation in the Arab region, according to European Patent Office (EPO) Director Richard Yung.
Speaking at the regional conference on ‘Industrial Property System for Actively Promoting innovation in the Arab Region’, which was concluded on June 9, 2004 in Cairo, Yung said that increasing understanding among Arab countries could lead to positive results in the IP field.
Meanwhile, EPO’s Vice President Manuel Desantes stressed that strong cooperation should be realized in the fields of IP, institutional capacity building and human resources development in the Arab world.
“The EPO as a facilitator could assist the Arab countries in many ways, but we all should think of how to make the best of the patent system in our countries.” he said.
Manager of the Project for Africa and the Middle East International Cooperation at the EPO, Konstantinos Karachalios said that cooperation should take place among countries in the region at first and then with the EPO.
Participants representing IP offices, governments, IP stakeholders and NGOs from Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, Libya, Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan in addition to the Gulf Cooperation Countries stressed the need to reach a solution to develop an efficient marketing and protection tool for inventions and direct cooperation among each other.
However, some participants said that it is still early to establish an Arab Patent Office.
“I think we should first organize the internal affairs of our patent offices and then study the matter,” said Salwa Rahhal Faour, Director of Intellectual Property Protection Office at the Ministry of Economy and Trade in Lebanon.
Meanwhile, according to Khaled Arabeyyat acting director of industrial property protection directorate at the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the concept of an Arab Patent Office is still in its primary stages and Jordan needs to develop a clear vision concerning this positive move.
Arabeyyat added that it is time to learn from the experiences of other countries working in the same field.
“Cooperation among the Arab countries is the key towards having a clear mechanism that could benefit all involved parties,” he said.
Arabeyyat also praised the idea of establishing a news agency specialized in covering intellectual property news and events, which was announced during the conference.
“The idea of having a credible source for IP news could lead to cooperation among the countries of the world and will make it easier to share data among all concerned parties,” he pointed out.
Other participants called for an effective action plan and a discussion forum that could help in exchanging ideas, sharing experience and working towards a decision.
The event was organized jointly by the European Patent Office (EPO), the Academy for Scientific Research and Technology of Egypt (ASRT) and supported by Talal Abu-Ghazaleh International (TAGI).
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