Under the patronage of His Excellency, Nabeel bin Yacoob Al Hamer, the Bahraini Minister of Information, the Economist Conferences roundtable “Intellectual Property Protection in the GCC” was concluded in Manama, Bahrain 21 April, 2004, Ameinfo reported.
High ranking delegations from GCC governments and senior level regional business representatives debated issues including import, distribution and sales of counterfeit goods and measures to combat IP infringements.
Businessmen representing a wide range of industries including pharmaceuticals, IT, music, and fast/moving consumer goods, recommended, during the discussions, the following points to the governments of GCC:
• Extending jurisdiction on IP issues to transit goods and free trade zones;
• Initiating unified legislation in the GCC and coordination among the governments;
• Educating the public/consumers about risks and dangers of using counterfeit products;
• Highlighting to people that taking or buying pirated goods is theft;
• Creating and fine tuning procedures and mechanisms for enforcement and implementation;
• Providing proper and sufficient training to enforcement authorities and customs officials;
• Evaluating penalization for intellectual property infringement and enforcement;
• Working on educating judges and prosecutors about IP protection;
• Simplifying procedures where owners of rights can report illegal activities authorities and acting on those leads;
• Convincing the domestic private sector that they have a stake in protecting IP.
This conference was sponsored by Philip Morris International, Automotive Brand Protection Coalition Middle East, (ACME), Business Software Alliance (BSA), and a coalition of FMCG companies and was supported by Gambate Communications Consultancy.