RIYADH, 10 July — The Gulf Cooperation Council has mapped out a comprehensive strategy to protect intellectual and industrial property rights including patents, trade marks, industrial models and designs, designs of integrated circuits and geographical data. The move is aimed at eliminating unfair competition.
“The six Gulf states, after realizing the importance of safeguarding intellectual property rights, gave priority to formulate a unified system for protecting patents as it is important for technical and economic development,” said Muhammad Al-Rasheed, director-general of the GCC Patent Office, here yesterday.
The GCC Patent Office, he said, encouraged domestic and foreign investments, and at the same time ensured protection of foreign know-how from infringement by illegal means. He said the office would coordinate with World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in organizing seminars, workshops and training sessions focusing on intellectual property rights.
On tie-ups with foreign patent agencies, Al-Rasheed said, “There had been an ongoing coordination with foreign agencies. The office has signed many memorandums of understanding with foreign patent offices designated as international examination agencies for the grant of patents.”
He said the GCC Patent Office recently granted nine patents after the applicants fulfilled the requirements stipulated by the patent regulations. He added that the patents were approved after a careful scrutiny of about 1,450 applications.
Some 95 percent of the applications received by the GCC Patent Office were from foreign countries, he said. The applicants were mainly from the United States, the Netherlands, UK, France, Germany, Belgium, South Africa, Japan, Australia, South Korea and India.
