Intellectual Property Rights Group to set up Regional Patent Office
09 Sep 1995AMMAN — The Arab Society for the Protection of Intellectual Property (ASPIP) on Friday decided to establish an Arab regional patent office and set up a masters degree course in intellectual property rights (IPR) at a universityaffiliated with the Arab League.
The decisions were taken at an ASPIP general meeting, which also reelected Talal Abu-Ghazaleh, chiefexecutive of a pan-Arab firm with the same name, as president of the ASPIP.
Work will start soon on setting up the Arab regional patent by 1996. The masters degree course in IPR will be established at a university in Alexandria, Egypt, affiliated with the Arab League.
The ASPIP, meanwhile, also continued special workshops/training courses in IPR as part ofits annual meeting in Amman, the first time the gathering is being held in Jordan.
The focus of the meeting is a review of the laws and regulations pertaining to protection of IPR - copyrights, patents, and trademarks - in the Arab World.
The ASPIP is seeking to impress upon Arab governments the need to have effective laws to protect these rights and strict enforcement of the legislation.
In a speech, at the meeting, Thomas Bombelles, Assistant Vice-President of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), called onthe Jordanian government to revise the patent law to offer “adequate and effective” protection for pharmaceuticals.
He noted that as Jordan seeks increased international investment and trade, strong IPR laws and enforcement were “a vital precondition for attracting foreign direct investment.”
Mr. Bombelles said PhRMA members were expected to spend, almost $15billion on “innovative biomedical research” this year, but a “major threat to the ability of the research- based pharmaceutical industry to continue this progress is the lack of patent protection in many countries.”
Mr. Bombelles said PhRMA members were expected to spend, almost $15billion on “innovative biomedical research” this year, but a “major threat to the ability of the research- based pharmaceutical industry to continue this progress is the lack of patent protection in many countries.”
While many countries have adopted pharmaceutical patent protection, others, including Jordan, have not done so, he said.
Addressing the same issue, Minister of Culture Samir Habashneh told the conference on Thursday that Jordan was fully committed to upgrading its laws and regulations governing IPR.
Mr. Habashneh noted that Jordan had applied to join the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), which stipulates strict IPR laws and enforcement of the legislation.
“The government aims to provide circumstances under which the present situation harmonizes with the legislative requirements stipulated in the agreement…,” the minister said.
Noting also that Amman will host the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) economic summit next month, the minister added that “in order to provide the most proper environment that enables our future investments to grow, we have developed our legislation, especially those relating to commercial dealings in general and to supporting the protection of intellectual property, in particular…”
The central theme of the ASPIP meeting, which is being held simultaneously with the annual conference of the Pharmaceutical Trademarks Group (PTMG), was emphasized by Mr. Abu-Ghazaleh in a speech to the general assembly.
“The message that we need to send to our noble leaders is that honest businessmen and creative and capable Arabs will all benefit from strong intellectual property protection (and) the only losers will be cheap imitators, pirates, and unethical businessmen,” he said. “Strong intellectual property protection must be adopted by our governments; our role is to support them by informing our peers and the public of the issues and of the relevance of these issues to them”.
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