DOHA: In a significant move, Qatar has begun receiving applications for patent registration and the first such request it received was on August 8 this year.
Qatar has joined the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) which allows filling International patent applications that are valid in all member states of this treaty. The director of the Intellectual Property (IP) center at the Ministry of Justice, Abdulla Ahmed Qayed, said in a statement yesterday that the first application to register a patent was received on August 8.
The IP center has received a total of 41 patent applications so far, 30 of them for the PCT. Nevertheless, the director of the IP center is expecting an increase in PCT applications which will indicate that International companies want to protect their inventions in Qatar.
The IP center was first established by Amir Decree number 53 for the year 2005, aiming to promote innovation and creativity in all intellectual property rights topics, and promote a culture of intellectual property among the public and the education sector.
The main departments of the IP center under the umbrella of the Ministry of Justice, according to the organizational structure, are: International Cooperation and Agreement unit, Copyright and Neighboring Rights unit and Patent and Design of Integrated circuits unit.
The Intellectual Property Center is competent in maintaining and implementing the following intellectual property laws: Law No. (7) for the year 2002 on the Copyright and Neighboring Rights; Law No. (5) for the year 2005 on the Protection of Trade Secrets; Law No. (6) for the year 2005 on the Protection of Design of Integrated circuits; and Law No. (30) for the year 2006 for Patents .
The Government of Qatar has the intention to further develop the legal and technical infrastructure in the field of intellectual property rights protection in order to ensure a better integration in the global economy. The state’s vision 2030, in the field of Intellectual Property, plans to extend the area of cooperation with international and national organizations and agencies via joining several agreements and treaties. Qatar also aims to put intellectual property into practice to achieve more welfare to the society by establishing a National Strategy of Intellectual Property under one umbrella in order to save resources and effort.
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