Oman celebrates World Intellectual Property Day
The Sultanate of Oman is joining other countries of the world in celebrating World Intellectual Property Day (WIPO), which is celebrated on April 26 every year. This is the day when the WIPO Convention came into force in 1970. The day is observed every year to create an understanding among the people on the contribution of the intellectual property towards the advancement of technological innovations for world development. This year, the day is being observed under the slogan, ‘Let us innovate for a green future 2020’.
Ali bin Hamad al Maamari, Director of the Intellectual Property Department of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, said: “This celebration is to make people understand the importance of intellectual property rights and encourage them to respect these rights. There are many dimensions of the intellectual property which are important for the development of societies.
These are related to patents, industrial designs, copyrights, trademarks, and geographical index. Many people still think that these issues are legal and commercial and are not related to their day-to-day life.”
He added: “The Sultanate celebrates this day every year to spread awareness among individuals and institutions regarding innovators. It is important that the real concept of ownership of Intellectual Property rights is conveyed to the society to explain its importance in the advancement of civilisation.
But it requires cooperation among institutions for the process of planning and strategy formulations to serve as a connecting point between the innovators and the institutions that support the intellectual property rights.
The adoption of the National
Innovation Strategy by the Council of Ministers led to institutional communication and cooperation to meet the requirements of social and economic development. This is in line with the directions of His Majesty Sultan Haitham bin Tarik, as it supports the objectives of creating an environment where innovations are encouraged by harmonizing with the five-year plans as well as corporate programmes and initiatives.
He said that the National Innovation Strategy relies on the intellectual property strategy to enable the Sultanate to be at par with top 20 countries in the global innovation index.
The institutional cooperation also strengthens the Sultanate to generate valuable economic assets in the field of intellectual property, especially as the country possesses wealth in the form of human capital; literary and artistic works; traditional knowledge; and genetic and biological assets.
The supporting institutions want to liberate these assets from restrictions by creating factors suitable for it to have a renewable and sustainable economy.
During the first quarter of the year 2020, there were 2,834 trademark applications filed. Of them, 152 applications were for patents, five for industrial designs and 55 for applications were for copyright.