Regional Conference Highlights IP Ties between Europe, Arab States
07 Jun 2004CAIRO - A regional conference entitled “Industrial Property System for Actively Promoting Innovation in the Arab Region” was opened on Monday in Cairo with the participation of around 40 intellectual property and patent experts from Europe and the Arab region.
The four-day event, jointly organized by the European Patent Office (EPO), the Academy for Scientific Research and Technology of Egypt (ASRT) and supported by Talal Abu-Ghazaleh International (TAGI) is held under the patronage of Egyptian Minister of Higher Education and Minister of State for Scientific Research Dr Moufeed M. Shehab.
During the conference, various workshops and sessions tackling current findings on Intellectual Property (IP), economic growth and innovation in developing countries will be held. In addition one of the sessions will be devoted to discuss policies for promoting innovations.
“Science is the heart of technology and the latter is essential for development. We as Egyptians are extremely satisfied with the cooperation between the EU and Egypt,” Shehab told the attendees at the opening session.
He declared that a regional patent office has been established as part of the Egyptian Patent Office, which is according to Shehab, a step forward in supporting inventions and inventors in the region.
In his speech, EPO’s Director of International Cooperation, Richard Yung, said that there is strong cooperation between the region and the EU in all fields.
Head of the EU delegation in Egypt, Ian Boag pointed out that there are several projects in industrial modernization, with a total cost of 250 million euros currently held in Egypt, Jordan and Tunisia.
Attendees 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 will underscore major issues related to industrial property system.
During the afternoon session, several study cases were discussed such as Jordan’s effort for promoting innovation as well as the contribution of the Jordanian Patent Office to this effort.
“The primary issue which Jordan concentrated on is spreading awareness concerning the importance of general and industrial IP through workshops and conferences,” Head of the Patent Section at the Industrial Property Protection Directorate - Ministry of Industry and Trade, Hala Khdiri said.
Khdiri noted that Jordan has the lowest patent registration fees in the region and that there are no annual renewal fees to be paid.
Meanwhile, Vincent Carre, Chargé d'affaires of the Economic and Financial Mission at the French Embassy in Morocco presented France’s experience which is the result of cooperation with the Arab North African countries in the field of IP.
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