(MENAFN- The Peninsula) The Peninsula
The Ministry of Economy and Commerce and General Authority of Customs (GAC) yesterday signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) in the field of trademarks and protection of intellectual property rights.
The MoU aims to achieve cooperation in the field of spreading the culture of protecting intellectual property rights and developing customs services electronically. It will also contribute to supporting the national economy by combating illegal commercial practices.
The MoU was signed by Assistant Undersecretary for Commercial Affairs at the Ministry of Economy and Commerce, Yahya bin Saeed Al Nuaimi, and GAC Assistant Chairman Ahmed bin Issa Al Muhannadi, and the signing was held at the authority's headquarters.
The signing came bases on the specialties of both sides where GAC is specialized in taking border measures on customs ports to protect intellectual property rights from piracy in compliance with international conventions and related legislation, in addition to taking the required measures to combat commercial fraud and counterfeiting in coordination with specialised entities.
On the other hand, the Ministry of Economy and Commerce specializes in applying the legislations related to the registration and protection of intellectual property rights in the country, including trademarks, data, trade names, industrial designs and geographical indications, the Ministry also has a database of protected intellectual property rights.
Al Nuaimi said the MoU complements the national role the Ministry of Economy and Commerce and the GAC plays in supporting the economy and devises all the methods and mechanisms that helps its protection and development.
Al Nuaimi added that the MoU comes within the ministry's continuous efforts to develop the protection of intellectual rights and spreading it and achieve the desired benefit and the MoU is considered a continuation to the ministry's efforts to take required measures to combat commercial fraud and counterfeiting in coordination with specialized entities. On his part, Al Muhannadi said the MoU comes as part of the GAC and the ministry's awareness to the need to cooperate in the topics related to intellectual property rights protections, and in full belief that joint work will be more effective. Al Muhannadi added the GAC is keen to take all the measures on custom ports to protect intellectual property rights from piracy according to global conventions and related legislations. It is also keen to take required measures to fight commercial fraud and counterfeit in coordination with specialised entities.
The MoU includes achieving an electronic link between the ministry and the authority and enable to GAC's employees to access the registered trademarks in aim to verify the trademarks of the imported goods whether they are registered and whether or not they are protected. The MoU also enables the ministry's employees to overlook the seized goods' cases that involve imitation or forgery of registered and protected trademarks in addition to pre-coordination with regards to meetings, international and regional seminars related to the topic of the MoU.
The Minister will periodically extend the GAC electronically with the data of registered trademarks, it will also provide the authority's employees with training programs in the field of protection of intellectual property rights as well as exchange information on the registered trademarks and the methods of identifying their authenticity.
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