The UAE is a leader in IPR protection. The whole nation is driven towards innovation and creativity as they are the grounds for reshaping UAE economy into a knowledge economy. In line with the strategic development plans, mainly the UAE Vision 2021 and Dubai Plan 2021, IPR protection gains much greater importance in light of our leadership’s initiatives towards stimulating innovation, namely marking 2015 as the Year of Innovation, per the directives of UAE President His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, and the launch of the National Innovation Strategy by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai.
These statements were made by H.E. Ahmed Mahbooob Musabih, the Director of Dubai Customs, in his keynote speech at the 5th Conference on the Fight Against Intellectual Property Crime in MENA. The conference, held under the patronage and in presence of H.E. Lieutenant General Dahi Khalfan, the Deputy Chairman of Police and General Security in Dubai, at Armani Hotel- Dubai on Monday, November 16, 2015, was organized jointly by the Emirates Intellectual Property Association (EIPA), Interpol and Dubai Customs. The conference saw huge participation of government and private entities concerned in IPR protection.
The Director of Dubai Customs applauded the efforts of the Emirates Intellectual Property Association and the Interpol in raising IPR awareness at a larger scale. He pointed that this symposium offers a great opportunity for sharing insights on how they can work together to efficiently combat counterfeiting, and protect the society from such growing global threat.
“Ever since the United Arab Emirates was founded, the country has paid utmost attention to ratifying all relevant international agreements. The UAE officially became a member of the World Intellectual Property Organisation back on September 24th 1974. After joining the WIPO, the UAE has implemented all of the organization’s treaties in an interval manner,” H.E. Ahmed Mahboob said.
“The world is becoming a smaller place more than it’s ever been, and global trade is increasingly on the rise, due the recent ICT revolution. As such, IPR protection has become an essential element to ensure free flow of goods between all four corners of the globe. This – indeed – calls for improved, highly-efficient anti-counterfeiting measures and better coordinated efforts amongst local agencies at one hand, and between the 188 WIPO member states on the other, in order to crack down on piracy and counterfeiting,” he added.
The wide popularity of counterfeits poses a serious challenge that is adversely impacting the growth of international trade. Musabih elaborated that the World Chamber of Commerce estimates the worldwide volume of counterfeit products trade at about 654 billion US dollars. The wide circulation of counterfeits costs the global economy sectors dearly; the IT sector alone stands a loss of 100 billion USD annually, while counterfeit and substandard medicines cost pharmaceutical companies around the world 46 billion USD. Additionally, the damage borne by people buying fake auto spare parts is around 12 billion USD.
“IPR-related agreements allow patent owners to enjoy an adequate protection of their innovations, in accordance with clear, all-inclusive guidelines worldwide, namely the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) with more than 145 signing states. The PCT makes it possible to seek patent protection for an invention simultaneously in a large number of countries by filing a single ‘international’ patent application instead of filing several separate national or regional patent applications. According to a recent WIPO report, the PCT saw 214,500 patent applications filed in the year 2014, representing an increase of 4.5% over 2013. On the other side, international trademark applications grew to a record of 47,885 in 2014, up by 2.3% from 2013,” Musabih expounded.
Dubai Customs seeks optimal protection of the community against the serious effects of counterfeit and illicit trade. This is basically done by developing and introducing latest smart IT applications in customs inspection. The Risk Engine, the Advanced Container Scanning System and the Smart Baggage Inspection System are only the cream of the crops.
These in-house-developed systems, according to Musabih, have commendably improved DC’s inspection processes and increased its capacity to detect counterfeits. Between 2012 and 2014, Dubai Customs scored 756 seizures of IPR infringing goods. And during the first nine months of 2015, DC staff conducted 101 seizures of such illicit goods .
Dubai Customs strives to engage all community segments in the fight against counterfeiting and piracy, through raising public awareness and educating people about the harms of counterfeits on consumers, producers and traders. “From early 2012 until end of September 2015, we carried out a total of 110 IPR awareness seminars, which were attended by 4,600 people. For the same period, we organized around 16 workshops on methods for detection of counterfeits, with 446 participants from various government agencies tasked with fighting counterfeits,” the Director of Dubai Customs added.
“We are specially targeting youngsters in our IPR awareness drive. The annual Dubai Customs IP Award for Schools and Universities has drawn participation from 54 schools and universities, with student bodies of 37,800 individuals, in the last four editions from 2012 to 2015,” Musabih concluded.
On the other hand, the first working session at the conference included a presentation by Dubai Customs’ IPR Director Yousuf Ozair Mubarak on DC’s ventures in IPR protection and combating counterfeit. The presentation highlighted DC’s efforts in cooperating with other government entities through the unified IP government work team, which meets regularly to share information and experiences in support of the state’s commitment to IPR protection. Dubai Customs’ partnership with the private sector to fight counterfeits was also tackled.