DOHA: Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC) has filed its first patent application seeking international rights for an innovative device ‘Q-Stent’.
The device will be used in heart surgery, according to a senior official of a local firm dealing with intellectual property (IP) rights.
The patent right entitled ‘Sternotomy Spacing Device’ (Q-Stent) has been filed under the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) in the name of Dr Rashid Mazhar Mohammed who has invented the device and is associated with Heart Hospital.
“We have filed a patent on behalf of HMC for ‘Sternotomy Spacing Device’ on November 5, 2014 under PCT (No. PCT/IB2014/002337), said Hussain Mohammed Al Obaidly, Managing Director, Alpha & Co IP, one of Qatar’s oldest patent firms with operations across the region.
Q-Stent is the first cardiac surgical instrument to be developed in Qatar. The device is designed, developed and implemented by HMC for clinical use in adult and paediatric cardiac surgery.
The effort has led to the first IP filing in the GCC by HMC, and the clinical experience with the successful use of the device, according to HMC’s website.
Qatar has been investing heavily in research and development in several fields, including science and technology, info-tech, medical, healthcare, space science and others, to transform the energy-rich economy into a knowledge-based society. Over the past several years, Qatar has developed many innovative products in several fields, including a patented solar panel design.
Al Obaidly said: “We are in the process of filing five more patent applications seeking IP rights for new inventions. These applications will also be filed under PCT.”
However, he did not provide details of the inventions for the obvious reason that the applications are yet to be filed, which, according to him, are in the drafting stage.
Filing international patent applications under the PCT, the owners of patented products can simultaneously be granted protection for an invention in 148 countries across the world.
Dr Rashid works with Heart Hospital and according to sources, Q-Stent had support from HMC’s Academic Health System Programme of HMC.
The Peninsula
