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Patent registration in Arab states ‘pathetic’

AJMAN - The patents registered by Arab countries is less than one per cent as compared to 91 per cent by developed industrial countries and eight per cent by the rest of the world, according to Dr Saeed Salman, President of Ajman University of Science and Technology Network (AUST).

Dr Salman was quoting the latest statistics issued by the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO).

In a recent issue of the “Ajman University”, Dr Salman pointed out that the number of patents registered by all the Arab countries last year was 581 - almost equivalent to number of patents produced by one Korean company.

“This fact is pathetic and the scenario quite depressing. We believe in the need to support Arab researchers and research centres across the Arab world in order to help improve their efficiency and help them come up with new methods of research,” he noted.

Speaking about scientific inventions, Dr Salman explained that the nation will remain dependent on the production of others and would not be able to achieve growth, without scientific inventions.

“There is a real need for improving education in the entire Arab world by implementing the latest intellectual property laws and adapting more research programmes,” he observed.

In this context, Dr Francois Dessosetot from Lasuanne University in Switzerland, said: “There is still a long way to go to implement all the required intellectual property amendments in the laws themselves. It will not be easy to catch up with these changes; what is important is to prepare oneself to adopt the changes and be flexible enough to accept the new rules.”

The Arab world and the Gulf countries possess a remarkable potential that needs to be further harnessed by implementing the simple laws of intellectual property to enhance performance and increase capability and efficiency, Dr Sharif Saadallah, Executive Director at the Economic Development Bureau for Arab Countries, explained.

Shedding light on the education of intellectual property in the Arab world, Dr Hossam Eldine Al Sagher, from Al Munofiya University in Egypt, said that most of the colleges and universities in the Arab world have no interest in offering education relevant to intellectual property.

“Intellectual property has not been developed fully to be a major academic course in Arab universities and colleges. There is a desperate need for experts and professional cadres who can provide the suitable education in this regard, and it becomes all the more crucial with the rapid development in the trade and economy that one is now witnessing here,” he noted.

• UAE