'MoCI taking all-out efforts for intellectual property protection'

The World Intellectual Property Organisation celebrates, on April 26 every year, the World Intellectual Property Day, to highlight the role that intellectual property plays in encouraging innovation and creativity. This year, as part of its celebrations of the World Intellectual Property Day, the organisation celebrates innovation and creativity among youth in order to highlight the enormous potential of young people to find new and better solutions that support the transition towards a sustainable future.In Qatar, the Ministry of Commerce and Industry (MoCI), through the Intellectual Property Rights Protection Department, works to protect the rights of innovators and inventors, and is making great efforts to communicate its initiatives to the public in the field of intellectual property rights protection, and to clarify the laws and legislation that have been issued to protect these rights, in addition to reviewing the most prominent electronic services that it provides in this field, introducing patent registration mechanisms, the followed procedures, and co-operating with the World Intellectual Property Organisation regarding the establishment of technology and innovation support centres.In this regard, the Director of the Intellectual Property Rights Protection Department at the Ministry of Commerce and Industry Amna Jaber al-Kuwari, said in a statement to Qatar News Agency (QNA) that the celebration of intellectual property rights every year is an affirmation of the importance of these rights and their role in supporting innovation and creativity as a product of the human mind, emphasising that intellectual property rights protection systems guarantee the rights of young innovators and constitute an incentive for them to ensure that the benefits of their innovations are spread to the local community.She added that the importance of celebrating the World Intellectual Property Day increases with the technological development that we are witnessing in the world today, the challenges of e-commerce, the different form of service provision and the Internet, and the role of young people in facing these challenges and providing them with original works based on intellectual property rights, such as trademarks, patents, industrial designs and copyrights.With regard to creating a generation aware of its responsibilities and achieving its aspirations, al-Kuwari said that we are facing various challenges, including a lack of full understanding of the concept and importance of intellectual property rights and here comes the role of awareness, guidance and organising seminars, which the administration does continuously and throughout the year, because of its firm belief that these rights will create a knowledge-based economy in which ideas are appreciated and stimulated by entrepreneurs and young people. Important gatewayRegarding whether laws are sufficient to protect intellectual property rights, and to what extent laws are applied to those who infringe intellectual property, al-Kuwari said that in Qatar, the legislative system is a modern system and keeps pace with international best practices in this field. The state's accession to a set of international agreements, such as the Patent Co-operation Treaty (PCT) administered by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), constitutes an important gateway for the local Qatari inventor and an attractive factor for foreign investments based on patent protection and the penalties stipulated in national laws constitute a deterrent to the infringer on intellectual property rights.She also revealed that the administration receives requests for registration and preservation of intellectual property rights from individual citizens and companies alike, as well as the case for foreign investors, whether resident or non-resident in the country, and in all fields, and the number of applications submitted to protect trademarks for the year 2021, from locals, reached 1422 applications, and the number of applications submitted by foreigners was 7,983 applications for registering a trademark.Al-Kuwari added that the number of patent applications submitted through the Patent Co-operation Treaty amounted to 665, and the number of applications submitted directly to the Office was 91 patent applications (both local and foreign), while the number of copyright protection applications for the year 2021, which were registered, reached 262, and the number of inspection campaigns carried out by the Department to enforce intellectual property rights in the field of trademarks reached 29 campaigns, which resulted in the registration of 17 violations.For his part, the Director of Business Development at the Industry Development Office at Qatar Foundation Ahmed Ali al-Khanji, confirmed in a similar statement to (QNA) that knowing the basics of developing and protecting intellectual property is one of the tools that enable young people to realize their aspirations for a better future. Al-Khanji added that the protection of intellectual property rights is an exclusive contract between the individual and the state (the market) in which he registers the protection, and this right is guaranteed to him in manufacturing, marketing and competition legally.On the way to create a generation that is aware of its responsibilities and achieve its aspirations, and to what extent laws are applied to those who infringe intellectual property, Al-Khanji said that this is achieved by spreading a culture of intellectual property and innovation in school curricula.He pointed out that the Intellectual Property Rights Protection Department at the Ministry of Commerce and Industry in Qatar is specialised in inspection and judicial control of cases of violation of intellectual property rights officially registered in the country, and that any inventor, in case of suspicion of a violation of an intellectual property right registered in the records of the Ministry, can communicate with the Department to consider the violation and withdraw the counterfeit product from the Qatari market.With regard to protecting the rights of young innovators and inventors participating in the 'Stars of Science' program, he said that Qatar Foundation is examining intellectual property and a preliminary market study is established for the projects of all competitors qualified for the program, and then the foundation register the requests for protection of intellectual property rights for the competitors for the first places, in support of their plans for commercial marketing and industrial development.