The Chairman of the Arab Society for Intellectual Property (ASIP) and Chairman of the Working Group on Human Resources and Capacity Building (HRCB) of the United Nations Information and Communications Technologies (UN ICT TF), Mr. Talal Abu-Ghazaleh, emphasized that he sees no conflict in the global intellectual property (IP) map with the summarized Arab IP map.
He stated: “As developing countries, we just have more basic priorities, but by attending to them, we will be helping both ourselves and contributing to the over all effort by the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) to organize the business community to respond to the challenges and the opportunities in the global Intellectual Property field.”
This came during a lecture entitled “IP Roadmap – The World ….. And Us” delivered by Abu-Ghazaleh recently at the Amman Chamber of Commerce, which was held by the Jordan Chambers of Commerce Union. At the start of his talk, Abu-Ghazaleh clarified that “Intellectual Property is a complex discipline by any standard, regardless of which national system you care to consider, but when it is viewed from a global standpoint, the varying and often conflicting national systems are extremely difficult to coordinate and reconcile.”
He added that “In the past this was a tolerable inconvenience, a normal frustration but increasingly, the globalization has accentuated the discordance between national IP systems and has increased the demand for a more rationalized and coordinated global system.
In consideration of the important role of the IP in the global economy and in the business community, the ICC publishes an IP roadmap that is updated annually. This roadmap details the leading issues confronting businesses in regards to IP. The top five are:
1. The globalization of the economy.
2. The development of new technologies.
3. The growth in economic importance of non-technological business innovations and resources that are not protected by existing Intellectual Property regimes.
4. The politicization of Intellectual Property issues.
5. Changes in the ways businesses operate.”
He elaborated by saying “The roadmap seeks to layout the principal IP issues facing businesses in form as to what ICC is currently doing in that area, what sort of support is needed from the business community and what the role of the government should be in addressing the issue. For us then, our role as ICC members or IP stakeholders is to consider this global roadmap and see how it relates to us; what is its relation to us in our part of the world? What are our priorities? Do we follow the same map, or do we have a different map to follow?
While the globalization and the technological development are benefiting and challenging most business communities around the world, everyone has their own particular point of reference from which to view and respond to those developments. One of the challenges of the globalization for business is the fact that patent and trademark systems that were developed in an earlier era are no longer adequate to the task of serving a global economy. The costs in money and time associated with filing patents are almost universally agreed to be excessive. Some jurisdictions are noted as having particularly exorbitant costs. Similar situations exist for trademarks , while the business and the economy may be going global, intellectual property is still mostly a national matter, and this creates a conflict, It also often results an unfair situations and a financial loss for businesses. Thus, cooperation, harmonization and the movement towards the ultimate goal of a truly global IP administration are key goals for much of the business community around the world.”
Abu-Ghazaleh stressed that “We, in the Arab world and other developing countries, may find such goals acceptable and even desirable, but they will not have the same sense of urgency for us as for our friends in the industrialized countries.
So as I read the ICC IP Roadmap, I picked out points that I see particularly important for us to address here in the Arab world. The Roadmap noted that “Some industrializing economies have argued that Intellectual Property Rights prevent their access to technology which could help their economic development. While not new, the argument still resonates in certain countries and among some groups and could have an impact on future Intellectual Property negotiations.”
The concept behind Intellectual Property Rights, is the need to accomplish a number of objectives which are encouraging innovation, balancing the proprietary rights and the public good, regulating commerce and avoidance of unfair competition.”
Abu-Ghazaleh pointed out that “One of the most important aspects of our era is the move towards a knowledge-based economy. Within this new economy innovation maintains and heightens its role as a key determinant of a successful competition. The respect for Intellectual Property Rights is one of the basic policy choices for fostering innovation. Without respect to IPRs, innovation is dead in the water, and without innovation, the economy is dead in the water - or at least crippled.
I believe that in another decade, we will look back and begin to see the dividends of meeting our TRIPS obligations. But we cannot just sit back, relax and wait.
An enlightened and enhanced view of Intellectual Property by the public and other sectors in the Arab countries is necessary for a number of reasons:
First, in my opinion, is the need to avoid the common tendency to play the game of victimization, we do not respect Intellectual Property Rights because rich countries force us to; we do so because it is in our best interest.
Second, in the medium and long term, effective enforcement is dependent on public support, meaning that success requires widespread understanding or at least acceptance of the importance and value of IPR protection.
Third, currently the drive towards compliance with TRIPS represents the most dramatic development in IPR administration in the history of the Arab world. However, by global standards, TRIPS really does set minimum standards; in other words, much remains to be done. For example, the need to accede to more global IP treaties or to enhance national legislation to take into account new technologies or other developments, will require public understanding and support.
Finally, understanding of IP and widespread respect and acceptance of IPRs may encourage complimentary policy choices that will contribute to the ‘Knowledge Capital’ of the country. This may involve rules on FDI, regulation of services, movement of natural persons, R&D investment and tax breaks or other matters.
He went on to talk about the knowledge-based economy, saying: “The development of the global knowledge-based economy has created an exciting opportunity for developing countries. Knowledge capital and not physical capital, is the deciding factor in economic success. Economically, valuable knowledge is basically Intellectual Property. Without Intellectual Property protection, the flow of knowledge is constricted, which can have the same effect on the economy as a stroke would have on an individual.
The Arab countries need to make a commitment to join the knowledge society. Intellectual property protection is simply a part of the foundation of this effort. I, therefore think that we should consider what our own Arab IP Roadmap should be. The global Roadmap is not antagonistic towards our own, but I think our own priorities will be more basic.”
He then offered the following suggestions:
1. TRIPS Implementation seeks the complete implementation of TRIPS, and urge and assist the accession of other Arab countries to the WTO (and consequently to TRIPs compliance). I may mention in the regard that my own firm, TAGI, is working with a swiss NGO called CASIN, under the guidance of the WTO, to provide capacity building to those Arab nations as wellas both the public and private sector entities that need assistance in learning how to cope with multilateral trade negotiations and with liberalization.
2. Marshalling support for IP protection. There is a growing understanding and acceptance by key government and business leaders in the Arab world as to the importance, desirability and indeed the necessity of the Intellectual Property. However, this understanding needs to be more broadly generalized to the rest of the society, particularly to consumers and to a broader segment of the political leadership. This support is necessary to allow effective enforcement and ongoing protection, as well as to achieve public acceptance for a new legislation as well as international cooperation on Intellectual Property, which will be necessary in the new global networked knowledge economy.
3. Improved IP administration, many Arab governments have only recently begun to deal with the complex issues common to the global IP community. The challenges that face the Arab national IP authorities are immense. The continuing and increased assistance from ASIP, the business community, WIPO, etc., are important to develop the human and technical capacity of the Arab IP administration offices.
4. Education on Intellectual Property develops within the minds of human beings. Arab education systems from primary to graduate levels do not sufficiently prepare our students to compete. Rote learning and static views of knowledge are not helpful for students who need to be creative and develop innovations in the knowledge economy. We need schools that encourage our children to ask questions and to develop a capacity for critical evaluation of choices, not a blind acceptance.
5. Investment, the Arab business community needs to begin investing in R&D, there is a direct correlation between investment in R&D and patentable innovations.
6. Government support, through basic research and appropriate tax breaks and other incentives. Governments need to do more to support business R&D investment, they also need to increase their own direct investment in the basic research, particularly through the university system.
7. International cooperation, there are many international treaties that seek to protect and organize the Intellectual Property at the global level. However, Arab countries are under represented in these treaties. Arab countries should participate in more international IP treaties, and in efforts to develop a truly global IP system. This will be in their own interest as the current IP stakeholders in the global economy tend to be from industrialized countries. Reduced financial and administrative barriers to global IP protection will be equally or more beneficial to the developing countries as they begin to develop their own IP resources in the knowledge economy.
8. Arab cooperation. We need to learn to cooperate better within the Arab world. An Arab patent office serving the entire Arab world would be a good start. Although from observing the progress of the GCC Patent Office, we can see that it will not be easy, yet it is possible. There are many other areas in which the cooperation could be beneficial. As we seek to develop our IP infrastructure, we should not overlook the importance of the Arab cooperation.
Finally, Abu-Ghazaleh stated that Arabs can draft a formal Roadmap for the region and present it in Arabic to stakeholders, the public and the media together.
He concluded by saying “I am certain that we can make a great contribution to develop the Arab IP resources and facilitate our participation in the global knowledge economy.”