Within its diligent efforts to raise awareness around intellectual property rights, Dubai Customs organized 37 events between January and November 2020, which targeted 1,818 school students, government employees and customs inspectors.
There are 327 new registered trademarks and 173 commercial agencies at Dubai Customs. There are also 7 knowledge patents registered for the Government Department for inventions made in-house by Dubai Customs employees, including Shawir application and IPR Plus program. In addition, Dubai Customs confiscated and recycled 148,673 counterfeit items for 46 international brands towards sustainable IP protection and green development.
“Protection of intellectual property is gaining more weight in this challenging time with the spread of Covid-19,” said Yousef Ozair Mubarak, Director of IPR Department. “Our role is to protect our society and economy from any IP violations. Part of our efforts goes to raise awareness around the hazards of counterfeited goods and this rogue industry in general on health and economy. We also work together with the trademark owners to protect their brands to ensure a fully transparent and competitive local market, and at the same time, we coordinate with them to recycle these counterfeited goods and protect the environment.
Mahbooba Baqer, Head of Awareness and Education Section said:
“To overcome any challenges posed by the restrictions due to covid-19, we use electronic communications to reach out for more people and raise awareness around IP rights, and methods used by counterfeiters to copy the brands. This will help our inspectors in the first place to distinguish genuine brands from counterfeited ones, and will protect the brand owners from these violations.”