Economic Reasons Hinder Arabs from Patenting
31 May 2004AMMAN - The majority of Internet users believe the economical development is the only barrier behind the small number of patents that Arab countries file every year, a poll conducted by ag-IP-news Agency indicated.
Around 74 percent of those users attributed the failure of the Arab countries to compete with the developed countries in obtaining large numbers of patents to economic reasons. However, another 18 percent believe that there are other reasons and nine percent said they don’t know.
According to official statistics, only 370 industrial patents were issued to people in Arab countries between 1980 and 2000. While, in South Korea and during that same period, 16,000 industrial patents were issued.
“I think that poverty and lack of excellent educational systems are hindering development in the Arab world,” said Jude Abu Tayeh, special client’s officer at Abu-Ghazaleh Intellectual Property.
She added that lack of awareness concerning intellectual property rights also plays an essential role. “There are a lot of people in the Arab world who don’t understand the concept of protecting a name, an invention or even an idea,” she noted.
There is no doubt that the relative lack of well-funded and well-attended science education has a direct impact on technological accomplishment; the tangible indication is the limited number of industrial patents registered by Arab companies and individuals.
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