Oman committed to promoting and safeguarding youth innovations

Developing national competencies: World IP Day celebrations underscore role of youth in driving sustainable future

MUSCAT, APRIL 27

The Sultanate of Oman observed The World Intellectual Property Day on Tuesday, April 26, with an official event held under the auspices of Qais bin Mohammed al Yousuf, Minister of Commerce, Industry and Investment Promotion.

This year’s celebrations were held under the theme, ‘Intellectual Property and Youth: Innovation for a Better Future’, affirming the great potential of young people in innovating new solutions to challenges and moving towards a more sustainable future.

The event featured a presentation on the National Innovation Strategy, an overview of the Artificial Intelligence Competition, a working paper on community awareness, and a discussion on the importance of intellectual property. In addition, the winners of a ‘Youth Video’ contest were also announced on the occasion.

In his address, Eng Khaled al Hinai, Director of the National Intellectual Property Office at the Ministry, said: “The Ministry supports young people by facilitating and simplifying the procedures for registering their innovations and providing technical advice to innovators in everything related to their innovations and their protection at the national and international levels.”

According to Dr Ali al Alawi, Chairman of the Omani Association for Intellectual Property, the Sultanate of Oman officially joined the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) on September 25, 1996 following the promulgation of Royal Decree 74/1996.

The role of the Oman Intellectual Property Association, he said, is to spread awareness of the importance of intellectual property rights, work to enforce intellectual property rights, encourage talented people, practical research in intellectual property, create national competencies in the field of intellectual property and exchange experiences and knowledge in various fields of intellectual property. The association currently hosts multiple experiences that crystallised at the beginning of the millennium in the field of innovation and intellectual property, he noted.

“The Society looks forward to communicating with international bodies and organisations and specialised international research centres to support their goals and achieve their aspirations. It hopes to achieve the objectives entrusted to it and create the pillars of knowledge for intellectual property and its protections for its active role in supporting industrial progress and increasing recorded innovations’’, Dr Al Alawi further stated.

Since its inception, the Association has participated in a number of various conferences and seminars at the local level, including a working paper about the Society at the World Intellectual Property Day Forum on April 26, 2018 and the opening of the Summer School Symposium on Intellectual Property and Knowledge Transfer at Sultan Qaboos University in cooperation with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).

The Association also participated in the Muscat International Book Fair for three consecutive sessions, where the Society laid the foundations for cooperation with public and private institutions and strengthened its close cooperation with civil society institutions.

It also signed a memorandum of cooperation with the Ministry of Higher Education, Scientific Research and Innovation, where the Society looks forward to framing aspects of intellectual property in various scientific innovations in the Sultanate of Oman in the future perspective in cooperation with the relevant parties within the framework of the objectives of the future vision Oman 2020-2040.