A symposium on Intellectual Property in the 21st under the banner “ Challenges and Opportunities for Developing Countries” was held in the Nile Hilton from April 13 –15, 2003 in Cairo. The two-day symposium dealt with several sensitive and crucial issues. Perhaps one of the most critical issues in the symposium was the (Issue of Mailbox Applications). Those are patent applications related to pharmaceutical inventions that are kept pending in the mailbox. According to Article 70.8 of the TRIPS Agreement, Egypt must start examining mailbox applications as of January 2005 since it is classified as a developing country. This means, that as of January 2005, the final product itself can be protected and not only the process of making it, which is currently being updated. Accordingly, the prices of medicine will increase significantly since only one company can produce a certain medicine. This is in contrast with the current situation where several companies can produce the same medicine using the same active ingredients but with different methods of manufacturing.
Another key issue discussed in the symposium that was on (Well-known Trademarks). Some of the participants suggested that World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) should issue a list of all well-known trademarks to be used as a reference in all international trademark offices. An official from WIPO said that the idea is tempting but it will be hard to implement it in the time being for the following reasons:
1. It will cause confusion as to why and when should a famous trademark be added or removed from the list.
2. It must be updated all the time.
3. It will cause problems among countries.
Dr. Fawzi El Refaii, the Head of the Academy of Scientific Research and Technology, delivered a notable speech about the (Implementation of Electronic Patent Filing). Egypt is one of the pioneering countries in the Middle East to adopt such a method. He also confirmed that the People’s Assembly has passed a decision to join the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT). He stated that the Egyptian Patent Office conducted a forecast study regarding the expected number of patent applications under the PCT in comparison with the actual number of applications that are currently being filed. The good news for all patent agents was that the study foresaw that the number of filed patent applications will increase after the passing of 18-month international phase from 1500 to more than 5000 applications per year.
Another issue, which was brought into discussion, was the (Exhaustion of Rights). The new Egyptian Intellectual Property law No. 82/2002 adopts the principal of international exhaustion of rights. This means that a foreign product can be imported into the Egyptian market and sold by a third party, although the same product might be sold by the rightful owner at the Egyptian market.
Other participant is Dr. Hosam Lotfy of El Shalakany Group who talked about the significance of Doha Declaration, which recognizes the public health problems in several developing countries and least developed countries versus the protection of IP rights.
Tarek Al-Khatib
AGIP / Egypt