Workshop on IP in Beirut
01 Nov 2002BEIRUT – Intellectual property (IP) protection is a personal obsession for innovators and inventors and a legal, economic and political obsession for countries. The Paris Convention of 1883 was the first international agreement to protect IP, and IP legislations have developed greatly in Arab nations after they acquired their independence from foreign colonizations and occupations.
Today, Arab nations have joined the World Trade Organization (WTO) and are in negotiations with the WTO, and in the process of approving the TRIPS agreement for IP protection which forms the basis of international cooperation in this regard.
On this issue, Alettihad talked to both the chairman of the Arab Society for Intellectual Property (ASIP) and chairman of Abu-Ghazaleh Intellectual Property (AGIP), Mr. Talal Abu-Ghazaleh, and the authorized minister/general manager of the patents office of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Mr. Sultan Alsbeiei, about this new permanent globalization –as long as there are new inventions and innovations worldwide.
This occurred during their participation in Beirut in the workshop entitled “Institutional Capabilities in Middle Eastern IP Offices from the Current Perspective and Reality”. This was held under the patronage of the Lebanese Minister for Economy and Commerce, Dr. Basel Fteihat, in cooperation with ASIP, AGIP and the European Patents Office.
This was attended by representatives from Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, the French embassy in Lebanon, a European delegation and a delegation from France Telecom.
ASIP chairman Talal Abu-Ghazaleh said that “if we consider progress as a standard, then I can say I’m very happy with the progress made by Arab patents offices, because during the last ten years they have advanced at rates that surpassed those of other countries during previous decades. This development includes the complete infrastructure whether it was related to legislations, or the development of executive systems, training or implementation.”
Abu-Ghazaleh added “As for cooperation between Arab offices, we know that there is cooperation between the Gulf countries, and this represents a nucleus for Arab cooperation, starting with the level of Gulf patents offices that coordinate among the GCC and Arab countries. There is much activity by ASIP and through regional Arab seminars that are convened. Yet more importantly, most Arab countries have either joined the WTO or in the negotiation process for joining, which would mean that they need to implement the TRIPS agreement which is the now the basis of coordination between nations globally, because all IP-related rules need to be adjusted in accordance with the TRIPS.”
As for developing and executing IP laws in Arab countries, Abu-Ghazaleh said: “The development that has taken place over the past 30 years has been huge. We should not forget that the first international agreement to protect IP globally was the Paris Convention of 1883. This represented the beginning of global organization of IP, which means that the world has a 120 year head-start on us. In this period, we as Arabs were under occupation and colonized. So if we look at the fact that we are young states that have just recently emerged from colonization and begun to have our own entities and legislative apparatuses, then the progress we have made is considered a very positive step.”
He elaborated that there is “an Arab awakening to coordinate everything and at ASIP we are preparing a project to present to the Arab League to create an Arab Patents Office. Also, we are working on unified Arab forms whether they be for licensing or technology transfer or for licensing agreements. There is a lot of effort going into Arab coordination and unification of systems and procedures.
As for the strategic importance of invention patents in local industries and Arab economies, Abu-Ghazaleh responded: “I attended a European conference on IP, and much of the talk was about recognizing IP as the economic motive, which means that it is the main motivator for production. This is because if there is no system that protects spending on research, innovation and development, there will be no party that is willing to spend its money on it.”
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