The Sultanate of Oman hosted the Arab Regional Forum on the Economic Importance of Intellectual Property between February 22-24, 1999. His Highness Faisal Bin Ali Al-Saeed, Minister of Omani National Heritage and Culture, sponsored the forum’s activities, in cooperation with the Ministry of Trade & Industry and the WIPO plus a number of other international organizations.
Oman joined WIPO in 1997 under the Omani Decree No. 74/96 as an instrument of accession, and became a full member as of February 1997. Lately Oman has enforced many intellectual property laws through raids on audio-visual tapes stores and will now commence enforcing the law regarding computer programs and compact disks.
Oman is looking to join WTO by the end of this year and will, therefore, have to implement all the GATT provisions to ensure achieving this objective. All intellectual property laws in Oman are now being revised.