Addressing a seminar on "Effective Enforcement of Copyright Laws", in Doha last month, Mr. Abdullah Qayed Al-Imadi, Head of the Copyright Bureau in Qatar, said that the raids which had been going on ever since May 1997 would be stepped up in "two-three months".
The raids on shops were being conducted with the help of police and some of the cases are in the court. Some others will let off with an oral warning. His department, Mr. Al-Imadi said, had taken several other measures too to prevent violation of intellectual property rights in Qatar. The Customs Department, for instance, had been asked to prevent the import of any unauthorized intellectual property material.
Qatar became a member of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 1996 and, being a developing country, had been given five years to implement the laws to make them conform to the Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs).
Also in "two-three months", Qatar will accede to the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works, and to the Paris Convention on the Protection of Industrial Property Rights.