Emirates News Agency – The Ministry of Economy is studying a new industrial property and patent law

Dr. Ahmed Belhoul Al Falasi, Minister of State for Entrepreneurship and Small and Medium Enterprises, affirmed that the UAE has achieved regional leadership in various fields related to innovation and intellectual property, thanks to the vision and support of his wise guide. .

This came during a media briefing, organized by the Ministry of Economy, on Federal Law No. No. 11 of 2021 regarding industrial property and patents, which is part of the largest legislative amendments in the history of the UAE that includes 50 federal laws, including the drafting of new legislation and amendments to existing laws.

This great economic achievement coincides with the country’s celebrations of the golden jubilee and strengthens the foundations of the UAE economic legislation, making it more competitive, flexible and open, and able to attract global investments and successful companies in various industries, especially in new and future sectors.

Dr. Al Falasi pointed out that the UAE ranked first in the Arab world for the sixth year in a row in the Global Innovation Index 2021 due to its success in developing an integrated system for intellectual property applications and services. The minister indicated that the state has implemented support and stimulus policies today to enhance the role of intellectual property in general, and industrial property and patents in particular, as one of the main drivers of economic recovery and progress in various sectors. He added that these are basic pillars of sustainable economic and social development efforts based on knowledge, innovation and creativity in the country.

In this context, Al Falasi said: “The new industrial property law is one of the most important initiatives developed by the Ministry of Economy and its partners to drive growth based on knowledge and innovation and support entrepreneurship.” The vision, principles and projects launched by the UAE government to establish a new phase of growth at the national and global levels, and this is achieved by accelerating the transformation towards a new, knowledge-based, more flexible and sustainable economic model that keeps pace with the latest economic trends in which innovation, technology, research and development, national skills, inventors and talents are represented. Entrepreneurs are the main engines of progress.

He also stressed that the law supports the strategic direction of the state by developing systems and procedures to ensure legal protection for inventions in order to encourage the creation of new ideas, innovations and inventions by individuals and companies from various sectors. This is particularly important for the seven priority sectors identified by the National Innovation Strategy, which are education, healthcare, technology, transportation, renewable energy, space and water.

During the briefing, the minister stressed that the number of patent applications submitted to the Ministry of Economy by the end of 2021 reflects a growth of more than 20 percent compared to last year. He also studied the most important indicators that reflect the development of the industrial property and patent system in the country in recent years, including: – A significant growth in the number of patent applications submitted to the Ministry of the Environment every year, from 157 in 2000 to 1288 in 2010 and 1917 in 2020 .

During 2021, the ministry received 2,428 new applications, with a growth rate of 26.7 percent compared to the same period in the previous year.

– The total number of patent applications tripled in the past decade (2010-2020) to reach 24,511 in 2020 compared to 8,028 in 2010. It increased in 2021 to 26,939.

The total number of industrial model orders increased by 290 percent over the past decade to 9,690 in 2020 compared to 2,483 we received in 2010. The growth continued last year to reach 10,663 by the end of 2021.

Patent applications filed in 2021 were spread across industries such as machinery and construction (23 percent), chemical engineering (24 percent), pharmaceuticals and biotechnology (24 percent), electricity and metals (7 percent) and information and communications technology (9 percent). cent).

Al Falasi added that the new law targets all segments of society, including individuals and companies who wish to protect their new inventions and innovative ideas with industrial and commercial applications. The most important of these inventors are individuals, universities and academic institutions that supervise the development of the inventions and innovations of their students, companies that have inventions or innovations, or research centers. It will also benefit entrepreneurs, SMEs, start-ups based on innovation and invention, and companies working in the fields of ICT and the new economy.

Al Falasi explained that the amendments to the new law aim to achieve speed, flexibility and effectiveness in the official and objective processes of examination, registration procedures, services and grants for all industrial property applications, which include patents, utility certificates, and industrial designs and models. Integrated circuits. He pointed out that through the procedures introduced by the new law, the ministry aims to reduce the period of issuance of the patent examination result to six months starting from the date of receiving the application from the previous 42 months. This is in line with the five best practices followed by the world’s leading patent offices, namely Japan, South Korea, USA, China and the European Union.

Fundamental changes to the new law to facilitate and stimulate innovation and intellectual property in the country 1. Ensures full protection of industrial property rights by adding industrial property rights that were not included in previous legislation, including protection of integrated circuit planning projects and for confidential information.

2. Adopting four new procedures to obtain flexibility in managing and examining applications, and to facilitate and expedite the procedures for receiving, examining, registering and granting them. This will help increase the inventors’ confidence in the UAE business environment and encourage them to innovate. The four new provisions are: Expedited Applications, a preferential channel for patent applications through which formal and substantive examinations of an application can be completed quickly; convert patent applications into applications for utility certificates and vice versa; Divide applications for patents, utility certificates, and industrial designs into several applications to allow protection of the invention at various stages of its development; and retrieve questions.

3. Updating the litigation procedures regarding industrial property applications, making them more flexible and faster, allowing reconsideration after granting them, and creating a mechanism that would allow complaints to be submitted to the Ministry before resorting to the judiciary.

Furthermore, Dr. Al Falasi explained that the Ministry of Economy provides integrated services related to various industrial property applications according to the best international standards, through its website, which can be accessed via https://services.economy.ae/m/Pages / CategoryServices. aspx? Category ID = 14.

At the conclusion of the briefing, Al Falasi reviewed the most important results expected from the new law in the next phase in support of Centennial 2071 and the “fifties project” that the state recently announced through various initiatives. strategic.

Translated by: Mina Samir Fouka https://wam.ae/ar/details/1395303010101