International Activities

Int’l Committee trip to UAE and Saudi Arabia

The International 4th Committee sent an investigation team consisting of 4 members to the UAE and Saudi Arabia, which play a central role in the GCC countries, during November 8-15, 2014 and held meetings for exchanging opinions with the following organizations. This is the 1st time for our Association to send an investigation team to Saudi Arabia.

The GCC member countries are a growing market characterized by a single language and a single religion, and Japanese companies are expanding their business in this area. Under these circumstances, there is also a growing need to obtain GCC patents or patents in respective countries. However, the reality is that not a few companies have little experience therein and have not yet understood practical points to be noted.
In the aspect of enforcement, even information itself on what entity shall deal with patent infringement is not sufficient, and its operational reality is also unclear.

UAE

Dubai Customs, SABA Dubai, Abu-Ghazaleh IP, Al Tamimi, JETRO Dubai, Panasonic Dubai, Arabian Anti Piracy Alliance, Dubai Consulate General

Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia Patent Office, GCC Patent Office, Japanese Embassy in Saudi Arabia, SABA Saudi, SMAS-IP

The organizations which the team visited were very friendly and helpful in responding to our requests, and the team was able to collect information which could not be obtained only by literature researches and other means in Japan.

Particularly in the UAE, it was found from this investigation that the examination period has been shortened and also the backlog tends to be eliminated. The team was able to investigate the number of infringement litigation cases of patents and trademarks, the anti-counterfeiting situation, and so on. Besides, in Saudi Arabia, the team was able to obtain information about the examination situation and the enhancement of anti-counterfeiting border control.

Details of the investigation will be reported in the future by way of special workshops and documentation.

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