Emirates Publishers Association discusses UAE intellectual property rights

The seminar, organized in collaboration with the Ministry of Economy as the official representative concerned with the protection of the intellectual property in the UAE, the UK Publishers Association and Abu Dhabi Book Fair under the auspices of Sharjah International Book Fair, was attended by many writers, authors, publishers, in addition to a group of representatives from the publishing sector in the UAE.

Speakers were Mr Fawzi Abdulaziz Al Jaberi, Director of Intellectual Property Rights Department at the Ministry of Economy, Mr Naser Bin Ali Al Khasawna, representative of and legal advisor to the Sharjah Customs Department, and Mr Scott Butler, CEO of the Arabian Anti Piracy Alliance. The symposium included dialogue, discussion and shared views and thoughts among participants on how can the intellectual property rights be preserved and how can intellectual, cultural and creative works and producers be protected against irresponsible piracy.

In her welcoming speech, H.E. Sheikha Bodour bint Sultan Al-Qasimi, Chairperson of the Emirates Publishers Association, said:

"We are here today for this remarkable symposium to shed light on the importance of the publishers' rights and recognize the efforts exerted for the protection of intellectual property and copyright that give meaningful strength and support to authors, publishers, law and states that respect the minds of its creative authors."

"We, Emirates Publishers Association, are honored to participate in this great project in order to support the creative knowledge production, enhance the protection of the singularity and to realize the principles upon which the Association has been based, calling for the promotion of thought, publishing, culture, knowledge and creativity in the UAE and the region as well. To encourage our publishing sector, UAE exerts tremendous effort, time and sacrifice to elevate its intellectual and culture production to play a universal and pioneering role in the development process, thus having even more shares of the economic cycle that will in turn benefit all parties after all," she said.

"To uphold the principle of partnership in achieving success and integrate common roles of all public and private sectors, it is my pleasure to highly appreciate the great role played by our distinguished partners for supporting the protection of intellectual property rights, especially those who have added great value to the objectives of the symposium affirming their keenness on the contribution to knowledge consolidation out of consciousness and law," she added.

The first ever UAE Copyright Law and its Implementing Regulations came into force on 12 April 1993 and 1 September 1994, respectively. This Law was repealed on 14 July 2002 by publication in the Official Gazette of UAE Federal Law No. 7 of 2002 regarding Copyright and Related Rights. As the UAE is a signatory to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) its provisions relating to intellectual property as stated in the Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), including reciprocity, are applicable to the UAE.